Guidance for transitioning to CFP (from Army CPT)?
I’m an Army CPT planning to transition out in ~4 years (after transferring GI Bill benefits). I’ve grown pretty dissatisfied with my career path, and I’m exploring financial planning as a long-term career. Note, I'm in the brainstorming stage and am just looking at options.
I enjoy personal finance, building plans, and teaching others, from the experience I've had. The end goal would be education-focused (workshops, classes, and/or hourly advice), and not AUM-driven.
We’re currently at Coast FI (if we retire at ~60), but we're working to accelerate that.
From my research, CFP requires ~6,000 hours of relevant experience plus coursework/exam.
Questions:
• Do you enjoy being a CFP? Best/worst parts?
• What are realistic paths to earn the experience hours? (Schwab/Vanguard/Fidelity seem common, but I’m hesitant about heavy sales/AUM focus.)
For those who left the military before 20 years:
• What helped you prepare most?
• What was harder than expected?
• How did you plan for the compensation/benefits drop?
Appreciate any perspective, and especially from those who’ve made a similar transition.
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Comments
Nectarine is a financial planning group
Flat-Fee Hourly Fiduciary Financial Advisors
You could try reaching out to someone with a similar background and ask if they would chat for career advice.
Thanks for that! I was aware of Nectarine, but I didn't even think of contacting the advisors for their career guidance
I hold a CFEI (Education Instruction, rather than Financial Planner) it’s what I took to start coaching & educating and is much quicker & easier to get started. I don’t intend to sell financial products or charge fund management fees (CFP regulated), just on a mission to spread the basics in seminar/class format and hopefully do some deeper 1-on-1 coaching. I am just starting out on this journey as well. I have my first big speaking/teaching gig in April to our Young Professionals Network in our community. This is a big passion project of mine. My plan is also to rent space out of a local co-working organization to further run courses and get in touch with potential coaching opportunities. You would have great veteran connections!
This is helpful and timely as I too want to help others, without having to work in traditional AUM roles. I had never heard of CFEI thanks!
I honestly didn't know that CFEI was actually a thing; thanks for sharing that 
JessBuildingThings. I'm quite aligned with what you said you wanted to do; I'll have to look into a similar path!
Hi Josh, I'm not military myself but I'm also considering a career change into financial advising. If you haven't already encountered this podcast already you may find it useful: Military to Financial Planner. They aren't as active as they used to be, but I recall them giving some military specific advice especially in their early pods. Hope it is helpful
Awesome recommendation; I've recently caught up on my podcasts, so this is timely find.
Hi Josh,
I'm currently transitioning (retiring) myself, and I'm in a Skillbridge with the Military Financial Advisors Association, and a little past halfway through the CFP curriculum with BIF - I wish I had started the education piece sooner. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. My plan is to knock out my curriculum and CFP exam first, gain some exposure with the fee-only financial planning community, then figure out the experience hours after that (IF you work directly for a CFP, you only need 4,000 hours; there's always the option of getting hours through various programs - Measure Twice Planning, Externship, etc., or launching your own RIA after you pass your series 65 exam by registering in your state). My wife works full time, so we've been able to save up on some reserves while I work on this path. Good luck!
Clarence
Are you saying you wished to start your CFP prior to starting CSP/Skillbridge? Good ideas on other ways to get the minimum hours required. I appreciate the response, and congrats on hitting that retirement!
Josh
Yes. The CFP education track for sure, as there's some MFAA CFPs that did so a few years before they retired. Thanks and good luck!
You’re getting great advice, Josh, and I have more suggestions.
This is based on the dozen or so vets I’ve seen pursuing any kind of financial career.
First, don’t lock yourself into a mindset of full CFP (or full ChFC). If you haven’t already, visit your military base’s family financial center and ask the Accredited Financial Counselors how they got their certification, how they spend their time, and likes/dislikes. The office might also have a CFP supervising the program.
Talk with paraplanners. I know the staff at Redeployment Wealth Strategies pretty well, and their feedback can help you decide whether you want to work for the CFP (bringing order out of chaos) or use it to earn while you learn for your chosen certification. Maybe you want a Series 65 license to help your CFP supervisor by doing Roth IRA conversions for clients, or maybe you’d rather simply help clients get organized and focus on their ToDo list. I’d start with contacting Carol Pittner, who’s been happily paraplanning for several years now. She's also my daughter, so I might be biased.
If you can’t do a SkillBridge (that’s mainly an issue of your command, not the program) then keep talking with MFAA advisors about internships or externships regardless of your command. I know Omen Quelvog got tremendous mentoring out of his (not that he needed mentoring), and now he’s running a podcast on the side of his CFP business to help future clients get to know him.
Take a look at Dave Jacobson's Coach Connections. He coaches… coaches… in building their businesses of counseling clients on debt, budgeting, basic financial literacy, and reaching financial goals. Look at his free content and decide whether you'd rather help at that level instead of running an advisory firm. This is closest to what I've been doing for the last 24 years, and I do it for free, but it only supports your budget if you ask people to pay you money.
Cody Garrett has a ton of free content at Measure Twice Planners. Watch the videos to get a feel for what type of client you’d like to serve (yes, military families, but what types of military families?) and what you’d like to do. Note that this link has a free scholarship for servicemembers:
CFP® 90-Day Financial Planning Experience 2026
(That’s not a public link. You have to know to search his site for the military keyword. Contact him to apply, and feel free to tell him Nords says it’s awesome.)
Or just go with the seven-day free experience:
If you’re not already doing so, subscribe to Michael Kitces’ site. Consume his content however you care-- reading, listening, any videos he puts out. Don’t feel obligated to learn anything as much as get a feel for the topics which resonate with you. Then you’ll know whether you want to be a full-time paraplanner, or a solo CFP, or part of a firm of CFPs, or an educator who’s hired by corporations to help their employees, or… you get the idea. You might be happiest with a lifestyle business.
If you get a job with a big firm, then your experience will focus on sales. Maybe it’ll be services instead of products, but there will be sales. If you work with a small firm then you’ll be selling subscriptions (a monthly fee for regular client meetings) or projects (‘help us plan our Roth IRA conversions’) or add-ons like having another partner doing income-tax returns.
Sales is good if you’re helping your clients figure out the things that will help them solve their problems. Sales is not good if you’re persuading them to buy what you’re paid to sell.
Great suggestions 
Nords !
1. Before this post, I actually tried to talk to my base's financial center about their experience, and they turned me away haha. They were too busy with helping people needing financial planning, which I 100% understand. I'll try again in a few months when they're caught up with their backlog.
2. I love the family recommendation; biases are always welcome. I've never even hear of paraplanners- that's a good direction for me to do more research.
3. My current command is 100% supportive of people pursuing CSP/Skillbridge, but who knows what that will look like in ~3 years when I actually am queued up for that program.
5. Thank you for the scholarship link. Absolutely wonderful resource. Once my current assignment gives me some space (I'm in command right now), I'll be deep diving on this.
4/6. I just caught up to my main podcasts that I listen to, so this gives me more things to listen to on my drives home from work.
Nords, thanks again for such an in-depth response. I'll definitely bug you if I have any questions or need more guidance.
Feel free to reach out if you want to chat. I am an Airforce veteran. I do not hold the CFP, but a bunch of other "alphabet soup" after my name. The ChFC is the same classes as the CFP but it is much easier to qualify for the experience requirement.
I am not retired.
(1) make sure you apply for VA Disability if there is anything wrong with you. Be honest about what is wrong with you. The US Government bought your body for X years. There has to be something wrong with you.
(2) If you don't have a family VA Healthcare, atleast in some areas, is good enough. I only use VA Healthcare. I have had other coverage, because I've insured my family when i've had a W2, but i've only really used VA Healthcare.
(3) I run a small financial planning practice that is hourly/project based fixed fee. Client flow can be a challenge. The question is what are you doing NOW to build client flow? Do you have a domain with a blog on it? A social media presence on LinkedIn? or YouTube? You need to think about how to build a funnel of eyeballs to see your stuff, for them to decide if they want to approach you. I refuse to assault my friends, or have any pressure in sales, which means I really need clients to decide I'm the right person, before we ever talk.
Feel free to reach out.
Thanks Cole, I really appreciate your response. I've never even heard of the ChFC- "you don't know what you don't know".
1- I definitely have some recurring health issues due to my service 😅. My unit's PA has been very helpful in ensuring everything is recorded.
2- I do have a family, but I don't know much about VA Healthcare. Honestly, insurance coverage is one of the things that worries me the most with getting out, but I just need to do more research on plans and how civilian insurance works.
3- Currently nothing. But gaining leads is definitely necessary for the career field. Once I figure out what exactly I want to do, and a couple years before ETS, I'll start moving forward with that.
Thanks again for the response
VA Disability: Good to hear, make sure its documented, and when you get close go through the
VA.gov | Veterans Affairs
VA Healthcare: If you dont retire, and you don't make it to 20, but you are disabled, then You and only you get "va healthcare" – 50% disability puts you in the highest priority group, but even lower levels are good, just that you might have a copay for something, and other limitations: VA Priority Groups | Veterans Affairs
However, if you are disabled at 100% or Total and permanent then your family (not you) gets CHAMPVA Benefits | Veterans Affairs This is really good insurance, technically it is sort of life Medicare but better. The network is all medicare doctors.
Website/Social Media: Seriously, i wish i would have done this. When you get to the point that you think you are going to take classes, that is when you should start. This is so that you can blog your study notes on your website, and post links to that on LinkedIn. This isn't to be sleazy and assault your friends, because i hate that, but it takes YEARS for people you know to naturally start to think of you in a different light. If you do your studying in public, this time counts. Also, Google search engines take years to trust domains, and they need hundreds of thousands of words so that the search engine can give you credit. I didn't start blogging until after I started, and it really was an issue.. Also, this is still true even if you go work for someone else, this public persona perusing financial education is worth real money.
oh yeah, most importantly The American College of Financial Services has provided scholarships for Veterans and Active Duty Scholarships at The College
I received a scholarship for my ChFC, and then another one for my Masters of Financial Planning. I don't know if they are doing graduate school scholarships at the moment though… And remember even if you want to get the CFP, all the ChFC classes count towards the CFP education requirements.