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Top Financial Planning Credentials and Top Finance Certifications for Bankers and Investment Professionals

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A financial analyst or financial planner typically prepares financial plans for his or her clients. The kinds of services financial planners offer can vary widely. Some financial planners assess every aspect of your financial life—including saving, investments, insurance, taxes, retirement, and estate planning—and help you develop a detailed strategy or financial plan for meeting all your financial goals. Other professionals call themselves financial planners, but they may only be able to recommend that you invest in a narrow range of products and sometimes products that aren’t securities.

Wealth Managers and Financial planners may come from many different educational and professional backgrounds. If you’re considering using a financial planner, be sure to ask about their background. If they have a credential, ask them what it means and what they had to do to earn it.  If the certification holder attended a nationally-accredited business school, that is the best method of certification. If they attended an ACBSP or ABA American Bar accredited program and took the proper exams and courses, then that would be the best type of accreditation.

Some financial planners have credentials like CWM Chartered Wealth Manager ® certification or AFA Accredited Financial Analyst ®. Find out what organization issued the credential, and then contact the organization to verify whether the professional you’re considering did, in fact, earn the credential and whether the professional remains in good standing with the organization. For a helpful list of various financial industry credentials (including the name of the issuing organization and any education or experience required to attain the credential), please read FINRA’s Understanding Investment Professional Designations.

If the professional you’re considering claims to be an MFP® certified, visit the website of the Global Board of Standards at www.GAFM.com The Board is an accredited regulatory body that licenses financial planners as MFP® professionals.  You can also call the Board at www.GAFM.org   The Master Financial Planner ®  International Board of Standards also has brochures and information about their accreditation and ISO certifications.

Quick Facts: Personal Financial Advisors from the BLS.gov
2018 Median Pay $88,890 per year
$42.73 per hour
Typical Entry-Level Education Bachelor’s degree
Work Experience in a Related Occupation None
On-the-job Training Long-term on-the-job training
Number of Jobs, 2018 271,700
Job Outlook, 2018-28 7% (Faster than average)
Employment Change, 2018-28 19,100

 

Here are the Top Financial qualifications that are backed by accredited education:

 

  1. MFP Master Financial Planner ® awarded by the International Board of Standards which is a TUV Accredited and  ISO Certified 9001 and EU Accredited Body.   Anyone with a business school degree from an ACBSP or AACSB accredited school can apply for MFP if they have 5 or more courses in investments, finance, tax or economics with a GPA of 3.0 www.GAFM.org    Accreditation:  TUV Accredited and ISO Certified 29990 and ISO Certified 9001.  This body is a Charter Member of the CHEA quality standards.
  2. CWM Chartered Wealth Manager ®  awarded by the International Board of Standards which is a TUV Accredited and  ISO Certified 29990  and EU Accredited Body.    www.GAFM.com  This certification can be obtained by attending an ACBSP or AACSB Business School and taking the exams and courses or by taking the required courses at an accredited law school.  Accreditation:  TUV Accredited and ISO Certified 29990 and ISO Certified 9001. This body is a Charter Member of the CHEA quality standards.
  3. RIA Registered Investment Advisor license:  If you work in a brokerage firm, the investment division of a bank or in an insurance company, you may be required to hold a Series 7 Stock Broker license or a Series 65 or 66 so that you can charge a fee for financial planning.
  4. CRA Certified Risk Analyst ®  awarded by the GAFM International Board of Standards which is a TUV Accredited and  ISO Certified 9001 and EU Accredited Body.  www.FinancialAnalyst.org  This certification can be obtained by attending an ACBSP or AACSB Business School and taking the exams and courses or by taking the required courses at an accredited law school.  Accreditation:  TUV Accredited and ISO Certified 29990 and ISO Certified 9001. This body is a Charter Member of the CHEA quality standards.
  5. Attorney or Law License – State License – Typically somebody who has experience in Tax, Retirement Law, or Estate Planning.  www.americanbar.org
  6. Chartered Financial Manager (ChFM) awarded by the Global Academy, LA, USA.  www.FinancialCertified.com  This certification can be obtained by attending an ACBSP or AACSB Business School and taking the exams and courses or by taking the required courses at an accredited law school.  Accreditation:  TUV Accredited and ISO Certified 29990 and ISO Certified 9001. Recognized by the Arab Academy of the Arab League.  This body is a Charter Member of the CHEA quality standards.
  7. CPA Certified Public Accountant – Regulated by State Government  or AICPA https://nasba.org/licensure/gettingacpalicense/
  8. AFA Accredited Financial Analyst ®  awarded by the International Board of Standards which is a TUV Accredited and  ISO Certified 9001 and EU Accredited Body.   www.FinancialAnalyst.org  This certification can be obtained by attending an ACBSP or AACSB Business School and taking the exams and courses or by taking the required courses at an accredited law school.  Accreditation:  TUV Accredited and ISO Certified 29990 and ISO Certified 9001. This body is a Charter Member of the CHEA quality standards.
  9. Certified Financial Planner ®  awarded by the CFP Board.  No GPA requirements. www.cfp.com  Must pass the assessment.
  10. AMA Accredited Management Accountant ®  awarded by the GAFM International Board of Standards which is a TUV Accredited and  ISO Certified 9001 and EU Accredited Body.   www.GAFM.org  This certification can be obtained by attending an ACBSP or AACSB Business School and taking the exams and courses or by taking the required courses at an accredited law school.  Accreditation:  TUV Accredited and ISO Certified 29990 and ISO Certified 9001. This body is a Charter Member of the CHEA quality standards.

When hiring a financial planner, you should know exactly what services you need, what services the planner can deliver, and any limitations on what he or she can recommend. In addition, you should understand what services you’re paying for, how much those services cost, and how the planner gets paid. See a list of Top Financial Designations  Financial planners charge for their services in different ways: some charge either a fixed fee or an hourly fee for the time it takes to develop a financial plan, but don’t sell investment products; some are paid by commissions on the products they sell; and others use a combination of fees and commissions.

It is always best to seek certification from an accredited body that has either TUV or ISO certification.  Also, check if your certification body is part of the CHEA quality standards protocols.

 

Matthew Ronald grew up in Chicago. His mother is a preschool teacher, and his father is a cartoonist. After high school Matthew attended college where he majored in early-childhood education and child psychology. After college he worked with special needs children in schools. He then decided to go into publishing, before becoming a writer himself, something he always had an interest in. More than that, he published number of news articles as a freelance author on apstersmedia.com.

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Wiz will pay $450 million to acquire Cloud Remediation Startup Dazz

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Wiz revealed on Thursday that it will buy channel-focused company Dazz in an agreement to add cloud remediation capabilities to the vendor’s cloud and AI security platform.

With features like application security posture management and continuous threat and exposure management, Dazz provides a remediation-focused cloud security platform.

Jared Phipps, a seasoned cybersecurity industry executive who most recently worked for SentinelOne, was hired by Dazz in February as its CRO as the business sought to expand its collaboration with channel partners. Presidio, situated in New York, has been one of the key partners.

Dazz said in July that it has raised a $50 million round of funding, increasing its total funding since its 2021 launch to $110 million.

Dazz provides a “industry-leading remediation engine,” according to a post published on Thursday by Wiz Co-Founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport, which will allow Wiz to “empower security teams to correlate data from multiple sources and manage application risks in one unified platform.”

This is Wiz’s third purchase overall and its second acquisition of 2024 after the company’s April acquisition of cloud detection and response provider Gem Security.

Wiz, a four-year-old startup, reported in May that it had raised $1 billion in new capital at a $12 billion valuation, citing its continued strong development in the cloud and AI security areas. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) for the business reportedly increased from $350 million earlier this year to above $500 million.

After making a number of management additions aimed at facilitating quicker partner-driven growth, Rappaport stated in February that Wiz would prioritize its channel operations moving ahead.

I“In cybersecurity partners are super, super important in the success of a company. So we’ve always [seen that] this has huge potential for us to tap into. I think there is so much more we can do,” he stated at the time.

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ProRata, an AI startup, Teams up with UK Publishers after reportedly Hitting $130 Million in Valuation

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A number of well-known British media outlets have joined ProRata, an AI firm that claims to compensate publishers for the usage of their work, in its expanding network of partnerships.

The Los Angeles-based firm announced on Wednesday that it has signed licensing deals with publishers such as Sky News, the Guardian, and the Daily Mail’s publisher, DMG Media.

In a recent Series A funding round, ProRata raised $25 million from investors such as the Mayfield Fund, Prime Movers Lab, and Revolution Ventures.

“ProRata’s founder and CEO Bill Gross said his firm’s AI technology is the only one that pledges to credit and compensate creators, while providing users with accurate search results.

“We have had hundreds of content owners and media companies reach out to us from around the world who are interested in piloting our technology. Stealing and scraping content is not a sustainable path forward,” he continued.

Similar alliances have previously been formed by ProRata with the German publisher Axel Springer, the Atlantic, Fortune, Time, and Universal Music Group (UMG).

Media firms are offered reasonable compensation by ProRata for the use of their content. The startup’s in-house technology may determine the proper amount of pay by evaluating the worth of the information used to create responses from an AI platform. This would make it possible to pay copyright holders for their work on a per-use basis.

Gross had previously said that AI platforms have been using “shoplifted, plagiarized content,” which fosters an atmosphere in which “disinformation thrives and creators get nothing.”

Gross is recognized for having created the pay-per-click model of internet search monetization with his business, GoTo.com, which was eventually acquired by Yahoo! in 2003.

In a recent blog post, Tige Savage, a cofounder of Revolution, stated that Bill Gross is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in monetization techniques.

“He’s attracted a world-class tech team led by AI luminary Tarek Najm to implement the vision and an accomplished business team, including Annelies Jansen and Jonas Lee to drive content and AI partnerships,” Savage continued.

The unpaid use of copyrighted materials by OpenAI and other tech companies to train their AI systems has led to litigation from media companies and other content creators.

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Film Bazaar Unveils an Interactive Cinema App from an Indian Tech Startup

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Arjun Nittoor, the founder of the Indian technology firm Vireza, disclosed at Film Bazaar that the company is creating a new mobile application that would transform the experience of watching movies in theaters by enabling viewers to engage with the films in real time.

The technology, which was created wholly in-house at the company’s research and development department in Bengaluru, allows viewers to use their smartphones to vote on important plot points during the movie. To keep up with the current screening, patrons download an app before entering the theater and scan a QR code at their seat.

“The film industry is one of the few sectors where the audience experience has seen minimal technological disruption in theatres,” Nittoor stated. “While screen and sound quality have advanced and 3D has been partially adopted, the viewing experience has largely remained the same for decades.”

The screen automatically brightens to show voting options and dims again when choices are made. The system uses discreet phone notifications to encourage audience participation around every ten minutes.

In 2026, Vireza intends to introduce the technology with a full-length interactive movie that will be produced in both English and South Indian for international distribution. The business is presently in the development stage and will shortly start doing multiplex chain trial screenings.

CtrlMovie’s prior success in the interactive film industry was mentioned by Nittoor. CtrlMovie is well-known for “Traces of Responsibility” and “Late Shift.”

In order to overcome the difficulties in cinematography, editing, shot composition, and writing that plagued previous attempts at the format, the firm has spent five years creating what Nittoor refers to as “a new science of filmmaking” that is especially tailored for interactive cinema.

“Despite the proliferation of viewing devices, big-ticket films continue to draw massive crowds to theatres, with box office numbers higher than ever,”  Nittoor stated. “This demand underscores the potential for a meaningful technology shift that could draw audiences out of their homes and into cinemas.”

Other Asian businesses are likewise investigating audience-driven narrative in motion pictures. In February of the following year, Japan’s King Records intends to release “Hypnosis Mic – Division Rap Battle,” an animated interactive film.

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