How I became a CFP® and launched my RIA
Welcome to the eighteenth post of The Invested Counsel—thoughts about financial planning for young lawyers.
(Or not, since this post will not be about financial planning for young lawyers. Instead, this week I will explain what I did to become a financial planner and launch my own financial planning firm.
The reason I’m writing this post is pretty simple; since launching my firm, a number of people have reached out to learn about becoming a financial planner and launching their own firm. I figured that putting it all in one place might be helpful for others who are thinking of following that path.
Note that this is not a post about whether you should become a financial planner, or whether you should launch your own firm, or whether you should leave your current job. Those are separate, more complicated questions. This is a recounting of the steps I took to get where I am.
That being said, just because I did things this way does not mean that you should follow in my footsteps. This path worked for me, but it worked for me because I designed it to work for me, with my specific circumstances. You need to figure out what’s right for you, and do that.)
Background (pre-March 26, 2025)
Prior to starting the process of becoming a financial planner, I had no direct experience in finance. Nevertheless, by the time I started on March 26, 2025 (my 40th birthday), I was not starting from scratch.
Some relevant work experience. When I was clerking for a federal judge and practicing as a litigator, I had a fair amount of experience that was at least somewhat relevant to finance, including securities, real estate, bankruptcy, and general commercial and corporate litigation.
Some relevant coursework. While I had no formal financial education, I had taken some relevant classes in college (microeconomics, macroeconomics, statistics) and law school (property, income tax, bankruptcy, securities regulation).
Some ad hoc learning about personal finance. I have been handling my own finances for a long time. Through my father, I started “investing” when I was about 13 (or 1998), though it was extremely limited (e.g., buying some mutual funds in an UTMA account). I did a little more investing in law school (e.g., I told my father to buy Goldman Sachs for me when I was a 1L, or around 2009), and started contributing to my first firm’s 401(k) when I joined in late 2012.
However, it was only in late 2014 (as a junior/midlevel associate) that I started to focus more seriously on learning how to handle my and my wife’s money. I read blogs and websites, read books, and watched videos on YouTube. I did a fair amount of that over the years, and unsurprisingly I enjoyed it (since it led me to my current career), but I was not systematic or comprehensive about anything. I would just read what I thought was interesting, and research things as they came up (e.g., setting up retirement accounts for my wife).
Initial Research and Series 65 (March 26, 2025 to May 22, 2025)
Since I knew basically nothing about the actual financial planning industry, the first few weeks were mainly trying to get a lay of the land. It was a lot of googling and reading.
Within a week or so, it became clear that I needed to take the Series 65 exam. The Series 65 is a 3-hour, multiple choice exam that covers what an investment advisor needs to know, but at a fairly cursory level.
I prepared for it by buying a test prep package from one of the traditional exam prep companies. I studied for the exam starting in early April 2025 until I took the exam on May 22, 2025. Except for a two-week break for personal reasons, I studied like it was a full-time job, by reading through the coursebook about twice and doing a lot of the practice questions.
The Series 65 is a fairly straightforward exam, mostly requiring memorization. I could have passed the exam with far less effort, but I deliberately overstudied because I knew it would be a good foundation for what I would be studying next.
CFP® Education Coursework and Amplified Planning Externship (May 22, 2025 to September 11, 2025)
Once I had passed the Series 65, I started to work through the CFP® education coursework. I decided that I wanted to become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® fairly early on. Prior to leaving the law, I was not familiar with the CFP® designation. Essentially, the CFP® designation is controlled by the CFP® Board, which sets certain standards by which someone can call themselves a CFP® professional. It is not a legal requirement that a financial planner be a CFP® professional; instead, the designation is meant to indicate that someone should be a good financial planner. The requirements to become a CFP® professional include (1) having a bachelor’s degree and completing certain courses, (2) passing the CFP® exam, (3) completing a certain number of experience hours, and (4) agreeing to be bound by the CFP® Board’s ethics requirements.
Since I already had a bachelor’s degree, the next step was to complete the CFP® education coursework. The coursework covers the six main areas of financial planning (general principles, insurance, investments, taxes, retirement, and estate planning), plus a “capstone” course in which you’re meant to display your ability to apply what you’ve learned in the academic classes to a scenario, prepare a mock financial plan, and present it.
As an admitted attorney, I could have avoided completing the coursework and simply completed the capstone course. However, since I knew I wanted to start my own firm (and thus would be working on my own), I needed to make sure that I had a good command of the material. As a result, I decided to complete all of the coursework.
In the program I used, the coursework was covered in six classes. Each class was the equivalent of a class in college or law school, with textbook reading, lectures, and midterm and final exams.
I was working through the coursework full-time, remotely and asynchronously, which meant that I could work at my own pace. It took me about three and a half months to complete the six courses (on average, I went through a course every 2-3 weeks).
A word of warning: There is an enormous amount of material to learn and understand. If you really want to learn the material, you need to put in a lot of focused hours. I probably spent an average of about 70-90 hours of actual work on each course. If you are planning on starting your own firm without any prior industry experience, I strongly recommend completing the coursework and taking it seriously.
I know very few people do it, but I am a big believer in reading the textbooks. Even though the textbooks are not always written clearly or efficiently, they are virtually always correct and internally consistent. In contrast, the quality of the lecturers in the program I used varied wildly. Some were excellent, and some were very poor. You cannot let your own education suffer just because your lecturer is bad.
Amplified Planning Externship. In parallel with completing the CFP® coursework, I also participated in the Amplified Planning Externship. The Externship is a summer program run every year by Hannah Moore at Amplified Planning. Unlike a traditional internship or externship, where you work for the benefit of the firm, the Externship’s work is purely for your own benefit.
In contrast to the CFP® coursework, the Externship focuses on many of the non-academic aspects of financial planning (using the software, dealing with clients, different career paths, etc.). The most valuable aspect of the Externship is hearing from lots of different financial planners from across the industry. If you are thinking of going out on your own, and you don’t have industry experience, I think the Externship is invaluable.
For example, while I had always liked the idea of charging a flat fee for financial planning, I was nervous because I wasn’t aware of other financial planners who were using that business model. Through the externship I learned about financial planners who were using the same model and were succeeding with it. That gave me the confidence to run my firm exactly as I wanted to run it.
Studying for the CFP® Exam (September 12, 2025 – November 12, 2025)
After I finished the CFP® coursework, I spent two months studying full time for the CFP® exam. The CFP® exam is a six-hour, 170-question, multiple choice exam. It is much more difficult than the Series 65 exam, because the scope of material tested is much broader and deeper than what is tested on the Series 65 exam. And instead of simply memorizing information (as required by the Series 65), you will need to apply that knowledge on the CFP® exam.
I generally followed the program suggested by the prep materials provider, which includes workbooks, lectures, and lots of practice questions. In many ways, it was similar to preparing for the New York bar exam. I also used the same sorts of study prep techniques that are useful in all context, like writing notes out by hand and creating and using flash cards.
Most importantly, I grew a beard in the months leading up to the exam; here is a picture of me outside the testing center, looking exactly like every other finance person in New York City.
Launching my firm and becoming a CFP® professional (November 13, 2025 – March 31, 2026)
After passing the CFP® exam, I took about a month off, during which I didn’t do much to move things forward.
By mid-December, I had started the process of setting up the firm. One of the key steps I took to launch my firm was to join the XY Planning Network (XYPN). XYPN is a company that helps people launch their own registered investment adviser (or RIA). From my perspective, the four main services XYPN provides are:
XYPN will help you get registered with either your state or the SEC, and provide guidance for staying compliant with the relevant laws and regulations;
XYPN will provide and help you get started with a basic tech stack of the software you will need to run your RIA. This includes customer relationship management software, financial planning software, billing software, and bookkeeping software.
XYPN will provide guidance and help with ideas for running your own firm, including marketing and business development; and
XYPN will connect you with other people who are launching their own RIAs through events, mastermind groups, and an online forum.
As someone who was starting from scratch, XYPN was enormously helpful by providing a foundation for what I needed to start my firm.
Regulatory approval. I established the LLC for my firm (ZZ Planning LLC) in mid-December, and set up the firm’s bank account and credit card in early January 2026. I submitted my registration application to the State of New York in mid-January, which was approved in early March 2026. There were a few inquiries from New York during the application process, but it was not terribly difficult. (The approval process varies among states, so your state may be easier or more difficult than this.)
Measure Twice Planners. I also signed up for the 90-day program offered by Cody Garrett at Measure Twice Planners. The program has extensive lectures and planning meetings with real clients, which helped me become comfortable with the idea of starting my own firm without prior industry experience.
Becoming a CFP® professional. As I was waiting for my firm’s registration to be approved, I completed the requirements to became a CFP® professional. The final hurdle for me was fulfilling the experience requirement, which generally takes 6000 qualifying hours. However, you can satisfy those hours if you have certain work experience that satisfies the CFP® Board’s requirements.
Since I was a litigator, I initially did not think that my prior work experience would count toward the experience requirement. However, after doing a fair amount of research into the CFP® Board’s internal rules, I wrote a long letter to the Board explaining why some of my prior experience fulfilled the CFP® Board’s requirements. (For any lawyers reading, it was essentially a letter brief.) Thankfully, the CFP® Board accepted my arguments, I became a CFP® professional in February 2026.
(If you don’t have prior experience that satisfies the Board’s requirements, there are programs that you can complete through companies like Amplified Planning and Measure Twice Planners that allow you to accrue satisfying hours pretty quickly.)
Finally, I launched my firm to the public on March 31, 2026, mostly through LinkedIn and emailing and messaging people I already knew.
What else did I do to learn?
In addition to the above, I listened to lots of podcasts, read books, and followed blogs that were relevant to financial planning.
Podcasts: These are the podcasts I listened to the most since leaving the law:
BIF Bites: Produced by the Boston Institute of Finance, largely focused on preparing for the CFP® exam
Rational Reminder: An academically rigorous podcast by financial planners from Canada
Planet Money: An NPR podcast about economics generally
The New Planner Podcast: A podcast about starting in the financial planning industry. (You can listen to the episode where I was a guest here.)
Books. These are the books I’ve read in connection with becoming a financial planner and starting my firm:
A Random Walk Down Wall Street (Burton G. Malkiel)
Die with Zero (Bill Perkins)
Seven Stages of Money Maturity (George D. Kinder)
If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy (Raj Raghunathan)
The Fund [about Bridgewater Associates] (Rob Copeland)
The Psychology of Money (Morgan Housel)
Your Money or Your Life (Joseph R. Dominguez and Vicki Robin)
The Snowball [about Warren Buffett] (Alice Schroeder)
Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman)
Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill)
One-Page Financial Plan (Carl Richards)
Fixed (John Y. Campbell)
On Writing Well (William Zinsser)
Just Keep Buying (Nick Maggiulli)
The Millionaire Next Door (Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko)
The Total Money Makeover (Dave Ramsey)
The Man Who Solved the Market (Gregory Zuckerman)
Same as Ever (Morgan Housel)
How Not to Invest (Barry Ritholtz)
Designing Your Life (Bill Burnett and Dave Evans)
How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
Talent Is Overrated (Geoff Colvin)
Plunder (Brendan Ballou)
I Will Teach You to Be Rich (Ramit Sethi)
As you can see, this list represents a wide variety of books relating to financial planning and starting your own business. I think you could get something out of any of these books (except Think and Grow Rich; that one was terrible.)
Blogs/Online writing. These are the people whose work I read fairly regularly online:
Ramit Sethi
Morgan Housel
Nick Maggiulli
Ben Carlson
Concluding Thoughts
Becoming a financial planner, a CFP® professional, and launching a new RIA takes a lot of work. For me, it was a full-time job for a year, with hours not dissimilar to those when I was in practice. But there is a path for anyone else to take, and it is doable.
Whether it is a path you should take is a different question.
That’s all for now. Have a wonderful week.
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