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Certified Wealth Strategist®
Continuing Education Requirements
CE Hour Requirements
CWS® certificants are required to complete 33 hours of CE (30 General and 3 Ethical) for each reporting period:
Reporting Period
Reporting period is defined as two-years, beginning January 1 following the date of receiving your CWS® certification.
Subject matter:
General CE (30 hours) must entail one or more of the following:
1. technical training that extends knowledge within the 13 Wealth Management Issues:
- Investment Issues
- Insurance Issues
- Liabilities Issues
- Qualified Retirement Plan / IRA Distribution Plan Issues
- Stock Options Issues
- Business Succession Issues
- Durable Power of Attorney Issues
- Gifting to Children / Descendents Issues
- Charitable Gifting During Life Issues
- Titling of Assets Issues
- Executor / Trustee Issues
- Distribution Plan to Spouse / Descendents Issues
- Charitable Inclinations At Death Issues
2. training that improves on practice management
3. client relationship that expands principles & standards, or communication
4. marketing of your practice
Ethics CE (3 hours)
Modalities accepted:
1. live classroom
2. teleconferences
3. webinars
4. attending a conference
5. writing a white paper
6. writing a book
Below you will find curriculum provided by Cannon Financial Institute that is approved for CWS® CE. Programs taken from other organizations may count for CE credit if they meet CWS® Board's CE standards.
Courses offered by the following organizations may qualify for CWS® CE credit: |
- Internal Programs offered by your firm
- CFP®
- ICB
- National Association of State Board of Accountancy (NASBA)
- State approved Insurance courses
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- American College (CLU and ChFC)
- Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE)
- Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA)
- FINRA
- State approved legal credits
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Earning CE Hours
CE hours must be earned during the current reporting period, which is a two-year period beginning January 1 following date of receiving the CWS® award.
Up to 10 CE hours in excess of the requirement may be applied to subsequent reporting periods.
Reporting CE Hours
Certificants can now access up-to-date information on CE hours that have been reported by CE sponsors by logging in to MYCWS within the CWS® website.
CE programs not registered with CWS® Board may be submitted online by the certificant accompanied with proof of attendance/documentation. Login to the MyCWS portal and follow the submission instructions.
Sponsors wishing to submit a course for approval by the CWS BOARD must send the following to cwsce@cannonfinancial.com:
- The Subject line: Requesting Sponsor CE Approval
- Name of CE sponsor
- Name of program
- Agenda
- Date of program
- Coordinator contact information
Please allow 30 days to review and provide a status.
Proof of attendance: Documentation may be a grade report or transcript for activities involving an examination.
For other programs, a written confirmation of attendance (i.e., Certificate of Attendance, Certificate of Completion, etc.) from the sponsoring organization is acceptable and should include:
- CWS® certificant name
- Name of program
- Name of CE sponsor
- Date of program
- Location
- Number of CE credits
- Signature of sponsor representative
In addition, an agenda showing the topics addressed and the time allotted for each topic should be retained. Please provide documentation electronically (scan or upload to email).
Reporting and Recordkeeping
Reporting and Recordkeeping
CE hours may be reported electronically to CWS® Board at any time by CE sponsors or by CWS® certificants. CE hours must be submitted to CWS® Board by the end of the CE reporting period, along with the other renewal requirements.
CWS® Renewal and Maintenance dues
Each reporting period (2-year) the CWS® certficant will be required to pay dues of $350 to renew and maintain good standing with the CWS® Board of Standards. A reminder will go out in the summer and again in the fall to remind alumni to complete their CE requirement. The mission of Certified Wealth Strategist® is to provide consumers with trusted advisors that are going to create, protect, grow and preserve wealth and doing so with the knowledge and competency to guide the client. Due to the events leading up to the volatile marketplace, consumers/clients are not trusting the industry... this is an appropriate time to prove that there are advisors out there who can be the "trusted advisor".
The Certified Wealth Strategist® is currently filing for 501 c3 status and hoping to have completed in first quarter of 2010. Subsequently we are filing for accreditation and this process will take a couple of years to complete.
Currently we are acknowledged by most State Securities that have adopted the NASAA Model 6 Rule and FINRA. To keep this acknowledgement in good standing a CE Requirement and disciplinary process is needed.
The $350 renewal will be used to support this mission and spread the word about the Certified Wealth Strategist® and its holders. We have modeled our CE requirements and dues after several worthy certifications: CFP, CIMA, CTFA, CFA, PACE etc. We have many great things in store for the CWS® and for those that hold the certification.
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