Important Information About the March 2010 CFP(R) Certification Examination

January 26th, 2010

Dear Keir Student:

Last night the CFP Board made an announcement that the March 2010 CFP(R) Certification Examination will test 2010 information. This is a departure from previous March exam cycles. Historically, the March CFP(R) Certification Examination has tested prior year information. As a result, Keir issued all of our comprehensive review materials for the March 2010 exam with 2009 information. We became aware of the potential switch to 2010 information about a week ago and immediately contacted the CFP Board about the potential impact to students taking the March 2010 Exam. The CFP Board responded to our emails saying that the Council on Examination was reviewing the situation and the feedback provided by Keir and other review course providers and universities. The CFP Board said they would make a formal announcement once they had reached a decision which occurred last evening. Even though there were rumors floating around prior to last night, we refrained making a formal announcement to our students until receiving the official decision from the CFP Board as we had been promised it would come within a few days.

The good news is a large portion of the numbers did not change between 2009 and 2010. For example, the $16,500 contribution limit to a 401(k) plan and the $106,800 maximum earnings subject to the Social Security tax remained the same for 2009 and 2010.  As a result, you can use the comprehensive review materials you already have to study for the March 2010 exam. We have prepared this document (click the link to access the document) which summarizes the key changes between 2009 and 2010 that could be tested on the March 2010 exam. For example, the estate tax and generation skipping transfer tax has been repealed for 2010. In addition, the AGI limitations for converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA have also been eliminated.

The CFP Board included the following information in their announcement last night which should help to eliminate any concern with the last minute decision to test 2010 information.

The tax tables and other indexed numbers to be tested on any given exam do not need to be memorized by examinees; the tax tables and other indexed numbers to be tested are included with the exam booklets given to examinees for reference during the exam.

CFP Board has flagged all March 2010 exam questions that may be "tax law"-sensitive for special scrutiny by the psychometricians during the scoring process to assure that examinees are not adversely affected by this change.

In order to answer any questions you may have about the change to 2010 information, Keir will be holding free one hour conference calls. Please pick the date and time that works best for your schedule:

The conference call number is 866-268-3606 and meeting ID is 22223333 for all three of the conference calls. In the event you are not available during any of these three sessions, we will record each session which will be available for 10 days after each call. To access the recordings, please follow these steps:

As a reminder, if you have any questions about the exam or the Keir materials, you can email our expert instructors at fpquestions@keirsuccess.com. Our instructors will respond to your email message typically within one business day.

Keir Educational Resources