The Financial Planning Challenge

The financial planning challenge was established by the financial planning association and the certified financial board planner for undergraduate students from the CPF board registered universities. The challenge is created to engage the student in a comprehensive financial planning experience and increase the profession’s awareness, organizations, and communities that support the profession. The objective of the competition is to promote the financial planning profession as a growing career choice with a vibrant community. The organization’s goal is to build the next generation of financial planners and help them succeed by engaging them in the financial planning community, encourage involvement, and raise career opportunity awareness.

The challenge has many criteria that are developed in part to demonstrate a potential avenue to satisfy the certified financial board. The challenge is also open for both student and faculty members of the organization and the registered team is expected to participate in the preparation and presentation of a complete financial plan. The competition is divided into three-stage and the winner will be selected at the end of the third stage. Read on as Emerge180, a business established to help business owners and entrepreneurs have a healthy financial life and focus on financial planning for success delves deeper into the financial planning challenge.

What are the criteria for eligibility?

The challenge is open for undergraduate students of financial planning programs in schools registered under the CFP board. The eligibility is limited to students who have no experience in professional financial planning and students with limited experience. Students who give administrative support in a financial planning organization are also eligible to register for the challenge. Students are to give an account of their professional experience to their academic advisor before team names are registered and submitted for the challenge. Plus, the academic advisors are responsible for informing the certified financial planning board about any potential eligibility issue before returning the registration forms for the qualifying case competition. The board will also work with the academic advisor while accessing the situation and decides if the student meets the eligibility standards. This is to say students that are considered graduates in their school can not participate in the challenge.

Who is the winner of the 2020 financial planning challenge?

The winner of the 2020 financial planning challenge is a three-person team from Texas Tech University in the department of personal financial planning. Since the beginning of the challenge, the students from the university are always in the top rank in the challenge. They’ve consistently earned the second and third positions in various years. For the first time in the history of the competition which was held virtually and, McKenzie Arrott, A.J. Bunn, and Rob Tuckfield Emerge 180 as winners of the challenge.

An assistant professor from the department said the three-person team put a lot of effort and dedicated their time in preparing for the challenge and the department is very proud of their achievement and how well they represent the university. They also receive a $10,000 scholarship in the university while each member will receive one hour of career coaching from Caleb Brown at the New Planning Recruiting. Furthermore, they also receive a full scholarship to the Financial Planning Academy residency program.

What is the award for the finalist?

The finalist is picked based on their score in the previous phases of the challenge. Eight top student teams are picked from the first phase to advance to the final stage of the challenge. This phase is held in conjunction with the Financial Planning Academy Annual Conference. Each finalist team will be provided with transportation or roundtrip fare, complimentary FPA Annual Conference registration, a gift card worth $75, lodging, and on year FPA membership. Also, they are given sixty hours towards the experience requirement which leads to certification.

Furthermore, the three leading teams will be awarded the following:

The team with the first position will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship for their school,  one hour of career coaching from Caleb Brown at the New Planning Recruiting. Furthermore, they also receive a full scholarship to the Financial Planning Academy residency program.

The second position will be awarded a $5,000 scholarship for the school and the third position will be awarded a $1,000 scholarship for their school.