Andrea Thompson

It's hard to know the latter.

What I can say is I've been an exam marker, I've been an exam writer, and right now I'm actually marking assignments for prospective CFPs who are going to write the exam, but they're going through the courses before that.

So it's so different than when I took my CFP, and I won't say how long ago that was at this point, because it was a while ago.

And I think that the education program has improved greatly since I did it.

For sure.

you know, decades ago now, there's such more robust content and an ability for those students to really have hands-on experience with real case studies and understanding of the material and feedback from planners like myself who are going through the assignments and giving them those tidbits like, you did really wonderfully on constructing your argument around this.

Something you might want to consider is that.

I never had that when I was going through that program.

So it's huge.

I mean, that feedback alone.

One of my planners also works with QAFP students, which is the Qualified Associate Financial Planning Program.

And she actually does discovery calls with them one-on-one to train them on how to do that particular.

Yeah, it really is.

And it does actually create a lot of possibilities as well for them to understand what real financial planning looks like out in the world.

I've had some opportunities to speak to some of those students through the Financial Planning Association of Canada as they're going through their courses.

So there's a lot more connectivity, I would say, between students and practicing financial planners than there ever was.

I can't even believe it.

And I think also being outside of the brokerage model, when you're inside of a particular company, sometimes it's a little bit of a black box, right?

But once you get out on your own, it sort of opened up the world a little bit.

And I have to give so much credit to FPAC and Julia Chung, Jason Pereira, you know, who have created this space for financial planners to really connect and professionalize the industry.