We are very excited to announce that Tyler Lodahl has been awarded the Certified Financial Planner™ designation by the CFP Board of Standards. He now becomes one of the youngest CFP® practitioners in the country, as only 4.71% of active CFP® professionals are under the age of 30! Based on the recent data from the CFP Board, the current total number of active CFP® Certificants is just 80,981.

The CFP® certification is recognized as the highest standard in personal financial planning. Anyone can call themselves a "financial planner". Only those who have fulfilled the rigorous certification and renewal requirements of the CFP Board can use the CFP® certification trademarks which represent a higher level of competency, ethics and professionalism.

Through the hard work of our team members and the loyalty of our wonderful clients, Echo Wealth Management has been growing!

In anticipation of that growth, two years ago we hired Tyler Lodahl, a young and talented graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who majored in Personal Financial Planning and Spanish. Since that time, Tyler has been assisting me in providing personal financial planning services to various clients.

The journey to obtaining the CFP® designation is not an easy undertaking and I will give you more information here:

CFP® Certification Requirements

A candidate for certification must complete the "Four Es" of Education, Examination, Experience and Ethics. The Education component means the candidate must complete a comprehensive course of study at a college or university offering a financial planning curriculum approved by the CFP Board and they must attain a minimum of a Bachelor's degree. It takes the average student at least 1,000 hours of study time to get through both the coursework and the exam, assuming that he or she passes the test the first time. At the time he joined EWM in July 2016, Tyler had already completed the education requirements of the CFP® designation.

The next step for the candidate is to pass the comprehensive CFP® Certification Examination which tests their ability to apply financial planning knowledge to real life situations. Tyler passed the grueling 6-hour comprehensive exam in November 2016. The comprehensive exam covers these 8 principal knowledge topic categories:

1. Professional Conduct and Regulation
2. General Financial Planning Principles
3. Education Planning
4. Risk Management and Insurance Planning
5. Investment Planning
6. Tax Planning
7. Retirement Savings and Income Planning
8. Estate Planning

The CFP® professional is also required to complete three years of Experience related to delivering financial planning services to clients. Because he has been working for me, a CFP® professional, he has met the experience requirement of two years under supervision of a CFP® professional.

The final component of the initial CFP® certification process is the Ethics requirement. By signing the CFP® Certification Application, individuals agree to be bound by the CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Practice Standards. This demonstrates to the public that we have agreed to provide professional financial planning in the client's best interest and to act in accordance with the highest ethical and professional standards for the practice of financial planning. The Code of Ethics includes seven principles: Integrity, Objectivity, Competence, Fairness, Confidentiality, Professionalism and Diligence, which serve as guidelines to all CFP® professionals. Because they are held to a fiduciary standard of care when providing financial planning services, a CFP® professional is required to act in your best interest.

Continuing Education for CFP Professionals

Once we have our CFP® certification, we are required to complete 30 hours of continuing education (CE) credits accepted by CFP Board every two years, including 2 hours of CFP Board-approved Ethics CE. All these requirements are in place to make sure CFP® professionals are well prepared to provide their clients with comprehensive and objective financial planning advice.

To help our clients get to know Tyler a little better, I recently asked him a few questions:

• What excites you the most about your work? Tyler: What excites me the most about my work is having the regular opportunity to positively impact the clients we serve, and to sit down and truly learn about their passions, hopes, and dreams. This consistently encourages me, and allows me to better serve our clients. It is fulfilling to be able to bring clarity to difficult topics, and to strive to simplify each client's life in any manner possible.
• Personal pursuits? Tyler: Outside of work, I enjoy living an active lifestyle, spending time with friends and family, taking road trips all over Wisconsin, and working with the younger generation through involvement as a Youth leader at my church, River Valley in Edina.
• What does your DiSC Personality Profile tell about you? Tyler: My DiSC style is SC, which I believe emphasizes that I am steady and consistent, and have an overall calm demeanor. As I strongly value collaboration, I aim to provide support and be someone that my teammates can consistently count on.
• If you were not working in the field of personal wealth management, what type of work would you choose to do? Tyler: If I was not working in the Financial Advising field, and had to choose another profession, I would consider the Chiropractic field. As I am very passionate about health and fitness, I believe this would provide a great way to assist others in living a healthy lifestyle, recovering from injury, and just providing care. Since I have experienced the impact of chiropractic care first hand, after having a lower back injury in the past, I believe this would be very fulfilling work.
• What is your favorite vacation and why? Tyler: While this is a hard one for me, my favorite vacation would have to be the recent trip I took to Ireland with family in May of this year. While there, we traveled around the country and spent time in Dublin, Cork, Killarney, and County Claire. I was absolutely amazed by the landscape, the history, historic remnants, the people, and the cuisine. This was a special experience for me, as I was able to spend this time with my family, and my grandfather, who will turn 88 years old this year. As I'm not sure how much more time I will have with him, these are memories I will always treasure.

Today more than ever, CFP® professionals are an essential resource. From budgeting, to planning for retirement, to saving for education, to managing your taxes and your insurance coverage, it’s clear that the term "finances" doesn't mean just one thing for most Americans. “Financial planning” means so much more than just investing. Bringing all the pieces of your financial life together is a challenging task. You don't have to do it alone. Consider working with a trusted CFP® professional to start planning now.

Congratulations to Tyler on this impressive achievement!