Family Financial Management Program at Virginia Tech Maintains Registration by CFP™ Board

Virginia Tech's Family Financial Management program has maintained it's registration with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. (CFP Board) through January 2009. The Virginia Tech undergraduate degree program, which prepares students to enter careers in financial planning, was first accredited in 1997.

"The continuation of our registration reaffirms the quality of our program in meeting the dual objectives of providing a broad-based undergraduate education and meeting the professional standards identified by a national review group," said Ruth Lytton, program director and associate professor in the Department of Apparel, Housing and Resource Management.

The CFP Board, which functions as an independent certifying organization as well as a nonprofit regulatory organization, fosters professional standards in personal financial planning so that the public values, has access to and benefits from competent and ethical financial planning.

A relatively young profession, financial planning emerged as a unique discipline about 30 years ago. Distinguishing it from other financial professions is its basic philosophy: financial planning is a process, not a product. Simply put, it is the process of determining how an individual can meet life goals through the proper management of his or her financial resources. A financial planner takes a "big picture" view of a client's financial situation and makes financial planning recommendations based on the client's needs in areas such as budgeting and saving, taxes, investments, insurance and retirement planning. Or, the planner may work with a client on a single financial issue but still within the context of that client's overall situation.

In considering a school's application to register a program, CFP Board compares the program with the financial planning-related topics identified in extensive, periodic job-task analysis studies which survey financial planning professionals to determine areas students should master in order to provide competent, ethical financial planning services. These topics include several broad subject areas: general principles of financial planning, insurance planning and risk management, employee benefits planning, investment planning, income tax planning, retirement planning and estate planning.

"CFP Board is pleased to have an educational institution the caliber of Virginia Tech offering its approved financial planning curriculum," said David Diesslin, CFP^®, chair of CFP Board's Board of Governors. CFP Board owns the certification marks CFP^®, Certified Financial Planner^TM and federally registered CFP (with flame logo), which it awards to individuals who successfully complete initial and ongoing certification requirements. Students completing the financial planning program at Virginia Tech will be eligible to sit for the national CFP^® Certification Examination administered by CFP Board. The Board currently authorizes almost 43,000 individuals to use these marks in the United States. For more about CFP Board, visit www.CFP.net.

The College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences embraces the arts, humanities, social and human sciences, and education. The College nurtures intellect and spirit, enlightens decision-making, inspires positive change, and improves the quality of life for people of all ages. It is home to the departments of Apparel, Housing & Resource Management; Communication; Educational Leadership & Policy Studies; English; Foreign Languages & Literatures; History; Human Development; Interdisciplinary Studies; Music; Philosophy; Political Science; ROTC; Science and Technology in Society; Sociology; Teaching & Learning; and Theatre Arts.