Zahn Associates Education Overview

Education Overview

Choose one of our leading partnered programs for your path to obtaining the CFP^® mark. Each Zahn partnered program offers a unique personalized experience with premium industry leading content. Each expert instructor is a working CFP^® professional lending quality instruction by allowing real world experience examples embedded in the curriculum. Overall, the program allows student to gain holistic knowledge of the topic content. The curriculum instruction is sized appropriately to lead the students on a successful path to completion.

National Underwriter's Tools and Techniques series textbooks are used in the partnered program curriculum. All instruction and textbooks are included in the program price. All partnered programs do accept transfer students from other curricula and challenge students. Group discounts are available for groups of 5 or more.

Upon successful completion of the program, students are eligible for CFP^® Certification Examination given each year in March, July, and November. To learn more about the exam process, click here.

The CFP Board required topics are developed in the courses: General Principles, Insurance Planning, Investment Planning, Psychology, Income Tax Planning, Retirement Planning, Estate Planning, and Capstone. We highly recommend taking the individual modules in order of the series as they tend to build on each other.

Grading is based on quizzes, case studies, final exam, and a Building a Client assignment.

The quizzes vary in length ranging from 10 to 20 questions each.
The cases have approximately 15 questions each.
The final exams range from 50 to 60 questions each.
The Building a Client allows the student to make the transition from course material to case scenario.

Course Descriptions

General Principles

This course is designed to introduce students to the financial planning process. The course focuses on the general principles required to become a successful financial planner which include the ethics of the profession as well as the knowledge and skills required to prepare a financial plan.

Insurance Planning

This course is designed to acquaint students with the principles of risk management and various types of insurance including casualty, fire, health, life, auto, home, disability. The principles taught prepare students to identify a client’s risk exposure and select appropriate risk management techniques.

Investment Planning

This course introduces the wide variety of investment vehicles that may be included in a client’s portfolio. Topics include client assessment, tax considerations, economic factors, valuation methods, asset allocation techniques, portfolio performance evaluation, and more.

Psychology, Income Tax Planning

This course emphasizes the fundamentals of individual income taxation, the tax implications of various types of businesses, tax-advantaged investments, employee compensation issues and planning, alternative minimum tax, tax traps, and more. The course includes Psychology of Financial Planning discussing client attitudes, behavior finance, money conflicts, principles of counseling and effective communication with crisis events.

Retirement Planning

This course provides a complete overview of retirement planning including retirement savings need analysis, qualified retirement plan design, Social Security, Medicare, and more. In addition, group life, health, and disability insurance; non-qualified deferred compensation; and other commonly provided employee benefits are examined.

Estate Planning

This course covers planning and managing federal estate and gift tax planning and opportunities. The perspectives of a variety of parties are considered including heirs, fiduciaries, estates, trusts, beneficiaries, donors, and donees. Topics include asset valuation, estate tax deductions, exemptions and credits. Significant time is given to the transfer of amount at death and the dispositive tools available to clients.

Capstone

Financial Plan Development Course: This course builds upon the material in the previous 6 courses. Emphasis is on the applications of how to build a strong financial planning plan using concepts that are used in every day practices. The “capstone like” course utilizes case studies and mini-cases to tie together the various disciplines studied in the individual prior courses into a comprehensive financial planning process.