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CAREERS in
PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING (PFP)
| Career Description: |
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Personal financial planners assist individuals, families, and small businesses with achieving their financial goals. Planners are often generalists, operating as a primary advisor and a link to specialists in tax, law, or investments. But planners can be specialists as well. Planners earning the CFP® certification have passed an examination covering a total of 101 knowledge areas in planning fundamentals, income tax, insurance and benefits, investments, retirement planning, and estate planning. A CFP® practitioner also has the requisite education, experience, and ethics. |
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| Potential Employers: |
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The personal financial planning career field is very broad. A number of planning firms are quite small, perhaps with only one or two principals. At the same time, very large financial services providers, such as American Express or Merrill Lynch, employ planners. Planners work in trust departments of large banks, such as Sun Trust. A number of CPA firms have started to build in-house planning programs. In short, since financial planning itself is unregulated, there is ease of entry.
Georgia State University Financial Planning graduates have taken jobs over this broad range. Some have taken salaried positions at leading Atlanta firms such as:
 Brightworth
Homrich and Berg
Creative Financial (Synovus)
AYCO
Sanders International
Others are employed at large banks such as:
Sun Trust
Several have started their own financial planning firms, for instance:
Niagara Financial
Gibbs Financial Planning
Students have had internships with such companies as:
Financial Discovery Corps
Anthony Smith Financial Advisors
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| Salary Statistics: |
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Entry level placements of graduates have ranged from $45,000 to $65,000 over the past five years. The median is approximately $55,000. These figures do not include a bonus. National statistics for related careers are as follows:
POSITION: |
ANNUAL SALARY (U.S.)
25th to 75th percentiles: |
MEDIAN ANNUAL SALARY (U.S.): |
| Employee Benefits Analyst I |
$36,000 to $46,500 |
$40,500 |
| Employee Benefits Analyst II |
$44,500 to $57,000 |
$50,200 |
| Employee Benefits Analyst III |
$56,000 to $70,500 |
$64,000 |
| Employee Benefits Analyst IV |
$69,000 to $87,000 |
$77,000 |
| Financial Analyst I |
$44,200 to $55,500 |
$49,500 |
| Financial Analyst II |
$58,000 to $72,000 |
$63,500 |
| Financial Analyst III |
$65,600 to $82,000 |
$72,000 |
| Financial Analyst IV |
$70,500 to $89,000 |
$79,000 |
| Financial Analysis Manager |
$70,500 to $91,000 |
$80,000 |
| Financial Planning Analyst I |
$46,000 to $56,500 |
$50,500 |
| Financial Planning Analyst II |
$59,000 to $72,000 |
$65,000 |
| Financial Planning Analyst III |
$68,000 to $85,000 |
$75,000 |
| Financial Planning Analyst IV |
$70,000 to $89,000 |
$77,000 |
Other Salary Resources:
Salary.com
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| Suggested Course Sequence: |
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Georgia State University offers three different CFP© Board registered education programs. All are at the graduate level in the Robinson College of Business. They are the MS-PFP, MBA-PFP, and the Graduate Certificate in PFP. Completion of any of these programs permits the student to sit for the CFP© examination. |
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| Alumni Success Stories: |
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We are very proud of all of our graduates. Below we highlight some of their stories:
"The PFP program at Georgia State has been instrumental in helping me launch a career as a financial planner. Not only did GSU provide me with the educational base and practical knowledge needed to pass the CFP® exam, the PFP program provided me with the networking opportunities and guidance needed to transition into the industry. Today, I find that the skills I developed at GSU have translated well into my role as a financial planner, and I continue to keep abreast of current issues and network with GSU Financial Planners through the GSU Financial Planning Alumni Group."
Annika Ferris
Brightworth
“We feel that the Georgia State PFP program accomplished two things for us in our careers. It helped us prepare for the CFP™ exam and most importantly, it gave us the foundation to become successful independent financial planners. The knowledge we took from the program gave us the confidence to start our own firm and allowed us to focus on what we really wanted to do…objective financial planning.”
Raj Chokshi, CPA, CFP©, MBA and Shawn Meade, CPA, CFP©, MS both graduated from the Georgia State University Personal Financial Planning program in 1999. They earned Masters Degrees and then founded the Alpharetta-based financial planning firm of Niagara Financial Advisors, LLC.
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PO BOX 4036