Industry Continuing Education (CE)
Background
A large number of registered representatives are also Certified Financial PlannerTM (CFP®) professionals. These professionals must complete a minimum of 30 continuing education (CE) hours every two years as part of the requirements for CFP certification renewal. Through the FINRA360 process, a number of firms expressed a desire for improved opportunities with regard to continuing education credits.
Recognizing the large number of registered representatives who are also CFP professionals, FINRA worked with the CFP Board to enable CFP professionals who are also registered representatives with FINRA to receive CE credits for nearly 60 of FINRA's e-learning courses, including anti-money laundering, communications with the public, cybersecurity, senior investor issues and insider trading, among others.
FINRA offers e-learning courses that firms may use to satisfy the annual Firm Element requirement, which requires broker-dealers to conduct a needs analysis and establish a formal training program to keep covered registered persons up to date on job- and product-related subjects. These courses can be found at www.finra.org/industry/e-learning.
Summary of Actions
- Worked with the CFP Board to certify existing and new FINRA e-learning courses for CFP credit.
- Enabled CFP professionals to receive CE credit for nearly 60 e-learning classes.
- Transitioned the E-Learning Program from Shared Services – Business Solutions to the RAD Testing and Continuing Education (T&CE) department to leverage expertise of the T&CE department related to CE development, delivery and vendor management, as well as optimize use of internal and external subject matter experts for content development.