Financial Advisor Designations: What Do They Mean?

July 2, 2025

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If you’ve never worked with a financial advisor before and are in the market for one, the good news is that there are plenty of options to choose from. The challenge is finding the right one for you.

You'll want to make sure their expertise or specialization is a good fit for your personal financial needs.

When you’re shopping for a financial advisor, you’ll notice that many of them have a few extra letters after their name: CFP, CPA, PFS, and CFA are a few common examples. These are professional designations, and there are over 100 financial designations and certifications available. Some certified financial advisors may even have multiple credentials.

The alphabet soup of certifications can get confusing, especially since many of them sound similar to one another. But these designations can be helpful because the term “financial advisor” by itself can’t really tell you much about someone’s qualifications when it comes to dispensing financial advice. The professional designations can at least give you an idea of an advisor’s level of education and training as well as their areas of expertise.

For example, if you’re only interested in tax planning, you may want to work specifically with a financial advisor who is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). But if you need help with more comprehensive financial planning, you may want to consider hiring a Certified Financial Planner (CFP).

While we can’t cover all 100+ designations, we can go over three common professional certifications you may see during your search. Hopefully, this will help you find your match.

1. Certified Financial Planner (CFP)

Financial advisors with the CFP designation are professionally trained to give advice on a variety of topics like investing, buying a home, retirement, insurance, taxes, and estate planning. In short, they know a bit of everything when it comes to financial planning.

For example, CFPs can work with you to put together a comprehensive financial plan and help you reach your goals no matter what stage of life you’re in.

CFP professionals are also fiduciaries, which means they’re required to act in a client’s best interest when providing advice. This is an important distinction because not all financial advisors or planners have this obligation.

Certification. The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (or CFP Board) is the official organization that oversees the CFP certification process. They set and enforce the professional requirements for CFPs. And the certification process is a rigorous one. Some even consider CFP standards to be one of the most difficult to meet in the financial services industry.

To become a CFP, you have to meet a series of education, examination, experience, and ethics criteria. For instance, you have to complete 6,000 hours of professional financial planning experience (or 4,000 hours of apprenticeship experience) to fulfill the experience requirements.

According to the CFP Board, the exam itself is a 170-question, multiple-choice test that consists of two 3-hour sessions over one day. It tests your knowledge and competency at providing comprehensive personal financial planning advice.

2. Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

If you have tax questions or need assistance with the IRS, a CPA may be able to help, as many of them are considered experts on tax matters, whether it’s tax preparation or other tax planning services. For example, if you ever run into an IRS tax audit, CPAs can represent you before the agency.

But taxes aren’t their only focus—CPAs can also provide auditing services, forensic accounting, business consulting, and even information technology services.

Certification. CPAs have to meet a series of education, examination, and experience requirements to receive their certification. These requirements vary state to state, but all CPAs have to pass the Uniform CPA Exam administered by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). This examination takes about 16 hours to complete.

Personal Financial Specialist (PFS). Some CPAs may choose to pursue a PFS designation as well, which is a supplementary credential from the AICPA.

PFS professionals are essentially CPAs who've received additional hours of personal financial planning (PFP) education, attained a certain level of related experience, and passed a PFP exam. Generally speaking, financial advisors with a PFS designation are able to work with clients in the areas of investing, retirement planning, estate planning, and more.

3. Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

A CFA or Chartered Financial Analyst is another professional designation you may see for financial advisors.

CFAs specialize in investment research and management. So if you’re looking specifically for a financial advisor with investment strategy, portfolio management, or wealth management expertise, a CFA may be an option.

You can find CFAs working across the financial services industry in areas like asset management, private wealth management, and investment banking.

Certification. The CFA Institute is the organization that manages the certification process. There are four general steps to becoming a CFA “charterholder": 1) pass the CFA exams; 2) complete qualifying work experience; 3) apply for CFA membership, providing two to three professional references; and 4) become a member of the CFA Institute.

The three exams cover a wide range of investment topics, including ethical and professional standards, various investment products, portfolio management, quantitative methods, and wealth planning.

Bottom line

Understanding some basic designations for financial advisors can help you find the right type of financial expert for your needs. If your needs are complex, you may even want to assemble a team of experts to provide more comprehensive advisory assistance.

Something to keep in mind: While you can get a basic idea of a financial advisor’s professional qualifications through their designations, that alone can’t guarantee their quality of service. You’ll still need to do some research and set up a meeting to see if they’re a good fit.

It's also a good idea to double check an advisor’s credentials online and see if there have been any disciplinary actions filed against them.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority or FINRA is a good place to start your research. FINRA is a government-authorized organization that works to protect investors, ensure market integrity, and oversee broker-dealers.

FINRA maintains a webpage where you can get more information about any specific financial professional designations—with links to various membership directories where you can look up an advisor and confirm their status.

Read more: How to choose a financial advisor

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