John Keir - General Principles of Financial Planning Textbook

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KEIR EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
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All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this material. However, should any errors be detected, Keir Educational Resources would greatly appreciate being informed of them. We will post all corrections and clarifications on the updates page on our Web site at www.keirsuccess.com.

Information in this material is subject to change without notice. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means or for any purpose without the express written permission of Keir Educational Resources.

Topic List for CFP Certification Examination Copyright 2011, Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. owns the marks CFP, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER, and CFP (with flame logo), which it awards to individuals who successfully complete initial and ongoing certification requirements.

ISBN PRINT #978-1-937404-13-0
ISBN EPUB # 978-1-937404-14-7
ISBN Web PDF # 978-1-937404-15-4

All rights reserved
Keir Educational Resources 2010
Revised and Reprinted March 2012, EPUB April 2012

For over 40 years, Keir Educational Resources has helped hundreds of thousands of insurance and financial professionals to obtain their professional designations. Over the last 20 years, Keir has produced supplemental study materials to help students complete the required courses at local universities and colleges in order to qualify to sit for the CFP Certification Examination. Keir also has comprehensive review materials for the CFP Certification Examination that have helped thousands of students to pass the CFP Certification Examination.

While working with numerous program directors and instructors from universities and colleges across the country, Keir Educational Resources frequently receives requests for a book that can serve as the primary textbook for each course. In particular, we received numerous requests for textbooks designed for Certificate programs rather than undergraduate or graduate courses. The focus of a Certificate program is to provide the educational coursework required to be eligible to sit for the CFP Certification Examination rather than a degree. As a result, the program directors and instructors involved with Certificate programs were looking for textbooks focused specifically on just the topics tested on the CFP Certification Examination rather than an undergraduate or graduate textbook that tends to include additional information not tested directly on the CFP Certification Examination. Keir is pleased to offer textbooks designed specifically for each of the courses included in Certificate programs. Keir also offers a Case Studies book that can be used in the Financial Planning Development Course that is required as of 2012.

Keir designed this textbook using our well proven methodology of structuring each book to follow the 78 topic list provided by the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER Board of Standards. We have used this methodology for over 10 years to help thousands of students pass the CFP Certification Examination. The 78 topic list is the current basis for the CFP Certification Examination. This textbook covers . Since we designed this textbook to follow the CFP Boards topic list, a Certificate programs students and instructors will find this unique format to be the most effective and concise way to learn just the topics specifically tested on the CFP Certification Examination.

This textbook also includes nearly 500 multiple choice questions including case questions to help reinforce each topic. The multiple choice questions included in this textbook cover the four cognitive levels of questions used on the CFP Certification Examination which are: (1) Knowledge/Comprehension, (2) Application, (3) Analysis/Synthesis, and (4) Evaluation. Although there is a bigger emphasis on the CFP Certification Examination on the higher level of cognitive questions, a student needs to master the lower level knowledge and comprehensive questions in order to then master the application, analysis and evaluation questions.

The CFP Certification Examination includes three comprehensive cases. We included 12 case fact patterns and related multiple choice questions in the Appendix at the end of the textbook. However, we included a table with the question numbers from each case that relate to a particular topic at the end of that topic in the text. The cases range from short fact patterns to full blown 5 to 10 page fact patterns. The short fact patterns allow students to start to build on their ability to answer case questions. The full blown case fact patterns provide the student with the same difficult level of the cases on the CFP Certification Examination.

Although most of the multiple choice questions in this textbook were written by Keir Educational Resources, some of the questions have appeared on past CFP Certification Examinations and are reprinted here with permission.

John Keir, J.D., Chairman of the Board and Editor-in-Chief, received a B.A from Williams College and a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law. Mr. Keir practiced law in Philadelphia, including a federal court clerkship and public service in the District Attorneys office, before joining Keir Educational Resources in 1989. Mr. Keir has been writing and editing materials for the company primarily in insurance, risk management, claims, securities law, retirement planning, and estate planning. Mr. Keir is the primary author of Keirs Series 6 Study Program.

Debra Sawyer, CFP, CPA, ChFC, CLU, Editor and Lead Instructor, received her B.S. in Managerial Economics from UC Davis and a Master of Taxation from Golden Gate University. Mrs. Sawyer started her career serving high net worth clients in San Francisco with Arthur Andersen. Mrs. Sawyer moved to Washington, DC with her husband in 1997 to work for Deloitte & Touch in their Washington National Tax Office. Mrs. Sawyer was responsible for following tax legislation on the Hill that would impact individual clients and their estates. In addition to serving very large clients across the United States, Mrs. Sawyer was also responsible for training the Private Client Advisors at Deloitte & Touch. After passing the CFP Certification Examination using Keirs Comprehensive Review materials, Mrs. Sawyer started working for Keir as a consultant on writing and teaching projects related to the CFP Certification Examination. Mrs. Sawyer joined Keir full time in 2002. She has over 30 exam cycles of experience helping thousands of students to pass the CFP Certification Examination.

James Tissot, CFP is the Founder of Prism Planning, Inc. located in Midtown Manhattan and the Hudson Valley. In addition, Mr. Tissot has successfully completed his Series 7, Series 63 examinations and has obtained his NYS license for life and health insurance. Mr. Tissot pursued his Bachelors degree at the University of Michigan where he majored in Psychology and Philosophy. In the late 1980s, Mr. Tissot started attending seminars on financial planning for the disabled and terminally ill. After performing pro bono work for 5 years, he went back to school to gain the formal education to become a CFP Certificant. Mr. Tissot gained his Certificate of Financial Planning through New York University while simultaneously taking further financial courses at SUNY. As Director of Career Development on the Board of the FPA-NY, he initiated a CFP Education Program, providing a resource center and supplemental exam preparation to the chapters CFP candidates beginning his association with Keir Educational Resources. He continues his pro bono work with the terminally ill and has been quoted in several major publications as well and has appeared on a variety of talk shows as an expert on the subject. Mr. Tissot currently serves on the FPA Board of Directors.