CFP continuing education requirements
As of Oct 5, 2026, CFP Board requires 30 hours of CE per 2-year cycle, including 2 ethics; cycles beginning on or after Jan 1, 2028 require 40 hours of CE per 2-year cycle, including 2 ethics.
CFP Board sets the CE rule for CFP professionals. Here is what it requires now, what is changing, and where each figure comes from.
What is required today
30 hours per 2-year cycle, including 2 ethics
- Cycle
- A 2-year reporting period set by your certification month.
- Carryover
- None.
"required to complete 30 hours of continuing education (CE) each reporting period" Source: cfp.net, checked Oct 5, 2026.
What is changing
Expected: 40 hours per 2-year cycle, including 2 ethics
- Cycle
- A 2-year reporting period set by your certification month.
- Carryover
- Up to 10 excess general CE hours into the next cycle. Ethics CE cannot carry over.
"40 hours (38 hours of General CE and 2 hours of CFP Board Ethics CE)" Source: cfp.net, not yet confirmed.
40 hours per 2-year cycle, including 2 ethics
- Cycle
- A 2-year reporting period set by your certification month.
- Carryover
- Up to 10 excess general CE hours into the next cycle. Ethics CE cannot carry over.
"40 hours (38 hours of General CE and 2 hours of CFP Board Ethics CE)" Source: cfp.net, checked Oct 5, 2026.
How the rule works
- Cycles that begin before CFP Board's Q4 2027 effective date stay on 30 hours: "No one will need to adjust a renewal cycle already in progress." Ethics must be a CFP Board-approved Code and Standards program. Not eligible for CFP CE under the current rule: practice management, marketing or prospecting, sales, and specific company or product presentations (CFP Board program requirements).
- CFP Board: 40 hours apply "only in their first full two-year renewal cycle that begins after the Q4 2027 effective date." Up to 5 hours may be practice management.
Not yet confirmed
We show these as open until the body that sets the rule confirms them.
- The exact day in Q4 2027 when the 40-hour rule takes effect. CFP Board's site says only "Q4 2027" (some of its pages still say Q1 2027), so for cycles beginning October 1 to December 31, 2027 we cannot yet say which rule applies.
Other requirement guides: CIMA, CPWA, RMA and CIMC · CFA · American College (ChFC, CLU, RICP) · IAR CE by state · FINRA CE
Requirements shown are summaries. Your designation body and state regulator have the final word. Today is Oct 8, 2026, Eastern.