Every batch I teach in Ahmedabad asks me the same question in the first week, usually before we have finished the first module: after I clear all this, who will actually give me a job? It’s a fair question, and most of what you will find online is either a recycled list of designations or […]
A declaration of interest, before anything else. I run a mutual fund distribution practice in Ahmedabad and I teach the CFP curriculum here. Commission income pays part of my bills. So when this article tells you that a fee-only adviser is sometimes the cheaper choice, understand that I am arguing against my own revenue in […]
Every batch, a week before their first Specialist exam, at least one student asks me the same two questions. What is the pass rate, and how many marks do I need to pass. Both have honest answers, and neither matches what the internet will tell you. Most “CFP pass rate” numbers you will find are […]
Every March and every July, the same question lands in my inbox and in my classroom. “Sir, old regime or new regime?” There is no opinion to offer here. The answer sits in about forty minutes of arithmetic, and once you have seen that arithmetic at your own salary level, it stops being a debate. […]
Commerce students in Ahmedabad come to me with the same three options every time: CA, CFA, MBA. In eight years of teaching, I don’t think one student has walked in and said they want to be a paraplanner. Most have never heard the word. The industry those three letters feed into is full of jobs […]
Every few weeks a call comes in from Dubai, Singapore or New Jersey, and the opening line hardly changes: “We are moving back next year. What do I do with my accounts?” The accounts are really the third thing to settle. First comes your residential status, because everything after it, including how much tax you […]
Indian investors put ₹32,490 crore into SIPs in September 2026 alone, across roughly 10.9 crore SIP accounts (AMFI industry data, September 2026). That is the market every MFD, bank RM and paraplanner now works in. Yet when I ask a room of CFP students in Ahmedabad to work out on paper what return a five-year […]
Every AMC publishes a factsheet for each scheme every month. It usually sits as a two-page PDF in the Downloads section of the fund house website. It is the cheapest research an Indian investor or distributor has access to: free and monthly, and hardly ever read. When I teach new mutual fund distributors, I ask […]
A doctor who finishes MD and a fellowship often sees their first real professional income at 31 or 32. A CA who spends three attempts on finals and then three years in a firm before signing independently is not far behind. A litigator can spend most of their twenties earning what a fresh graduate earns […]
CFP stands for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER. It is not a degree and not a company. It is a professional certification, and in India it is administered by FPSB India, the local arm of the Financial Planning Standards Board. If that single line is what you came for, you have it. The rest of this article […]
Every new batch I teach, the first question is some version of “how long will this take me?” On certified financial planner course duration, the realistic range is 12 to 24 months. About a year if you can study full time, nearer 18 months if you are holding a job alongside, and 6 to 9 […]
Every few months a BA final-year student lands up in my classroom in Ahmedabad, usually brought along by a cousin or a friend who is doing the CFP programme with us. The question is always some version of the same one: after BA, which course is best? The honest answer is that the question is […]
