Free CFP Practice Exam

CFP Board Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct

Covers the fiduciary duty and ethical obligations CFP professionals owe clients when providing financial advice.

CFP Board Procedural Rules

The disciplinary and enforcement process CFP Board uses to investigate and sanction violations of its standards.

Financial Industry Structure and Regulation

How financial institutions, securities/insurance regulators, and consumer-protection laws frame the delivery of financial advice.

Financial Planning Process and Cash Flow Management

The steps for gathering client data, analyzing financial statements, and managing budgets/cash flow that underlie any plan.

Debt and Financing Strategies

How loan structures and credit decisions affect a client's overall financial position.

Economic Concepts and Time Value of Money

Core macro/microeconomic ideas and time-value-of-money calculations used to evaluate planning decisions.

Education Planning

Projecting education costs and matching them with appropriate savings and funding vehicles.

Gift and Income Tax Basics

Foundational income and gift tax concepts that intersect with general planning recommendations.

Risk Identification and Exposure Analysis

Evaluating a client's exposure to personal, property, and liability risks.

Health, Disability, and Long-Term Care Insurance

Structuring coverage for medical costs, income replacement, and long-term-care needs.

Life Insurance and Annuities

Comparing qualified and non-qualified life insurance and annuity products for protection and income purposes.

Business Owner Insurance Solutions

Insurance strategies tailored to business owners, such as key-person and buy-sell funding.

Insurance Needs Analysis and Carrier Selection

Quantifying a client's insurance needs and comparing insurers and products against them.

Investment Vehicles and Taxation

Characteristics and tax treatment of common investment vehicles such as stocks, bonds, and funds.

Investment Risk and Market Cycles

Types of investment risk and how economic/market cycles influence portfolio behavior.

Asset Allocation and Diversification

Building diversified portfolios aligned to a client's risk tolerance, time horizon, and goals.

Bond and Stock Valuation

Methods for valuing fixed-income and equity securities to support recommendations.

Alternative Investments and Digital Assets

Alternative, less-liquid investments and their risk/liquidity tradeoffs; the current outline adds explicit coverage of digital assets here.

Income Tax Fundamentals and Calculations

Core tax law concepts and how an individual's income tax liability is computed.

Business Entity Taxation

How different business structures (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, etc.) are taxed.

Trust and Estate Taxation

Tax treatment of trusts and estates as they interact with a client's broader plan.

Tax Reduction Techniques and Property Transactions

Strategies for lowering tax liability and understanding the tax consequences of buying or selling property.

Charitable Giving Strategies

Tax-efficient approaches to structuring charitable contributions.

Retirement Needs, Social Security, and Medicare

Estimating a client's retirement income needs and incorporating Social Security and Medicare benefits into the plan.

Retirement Plan Types and Qualification Rules

Employer-sponsored and individual retirement plans and the rules governing their qualification and use.

Distribution Strategies and Business Succession

Approaches to drawing down retirement assets and planning for business succession as part of a retirement strategy.

Property Titling and Beneficiary Designations

How the way property is titled and beneficiaries are designated determines how assets transfer at death.

Estate Documents and Transfer Tax Compliance

Core estate planning documents and compliance with gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax rules.

Trusts and Business Transfer Techniques

Using trusts, the marital deduction, and business-transfer techniques to accomplish estate planning goals.

Client Attitudes and Behavioral Finance

How client values, attitudes, and cognitive/behavioral biases (e.g., money scripts, resistance to change) shape financial decision-making.

Communication and Crisis Counseling Foundations

Communication techniques and basic crisis-counseling skills planners use to guide clients through difficult financial situations.