ABA CTFA Exam (ABA Certified Trust and Fiduciary Advisor) Detailed Information
DEFINITION of 'Certified Trust And Financial Advisor -
CTFA'
A professional credential offered by the American Bankers Association for financial professionals. This mark provides training and knowledge in taxes, investments, financial planning, trusts and estates. The Certified Trust and Financial Advisor mark is appropriate for bankers, brokers, financial planners, tax professionals and trust officers.
BREAKING DOWN 'Certified Trust And Financial Advisor -
CTFA'
To achieve the designation candidates must have a minimum of three years experience in personal trusts along with the completion of an ICB trust training program. Candidates can also have five years experience in personal trusts along with a bachelor's degree or ten years experience in personal trusts. To go along with the prequisites, candidates must also sign a professional code of ethics and successfully pass an examination.
Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (
CTFA)
Make this the year you earn your Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (
CTFA) certification -- the recognized standard of excellence for trust and wealth advisors.
Earning this widely-respected certification lets your employer and clients know that you have a formally-acknowledged level of knowledge, skills and competence in your field.
Interested in taking the next step toward your
CTFA? Explore the following web pages to learn more about eligibility, exam requirements, and the pathway to earning your
CTFA Eligibility Requirements
Please note: The ICB certifications are based on U.S. laws and regulations and are therefore not offered outside the U.S.
Interested in exploring the
CTFA designation? Learn whether you're eligible today!
You must meet the following prerequisites to qualify to take the
CTFA certification examination.
Professional Experience and Education
Wealth management experience is defined as direct client contact in the various facets of delivering financial planning and fiduciary services relating to trusts, estates, IRAs and individual asset management accounts. This experience further includes providing direct client contact in administrative, investment management, tax, legal and marketing services.
Please note -- experience in employee benefit trust, corporate trust or securities/trust operations does not qualify as wealth management experience.
Experience tiers:
A minimum of three (3) years experience in wealth management and completion of one of the following four ICB-approved wealth management training programs:
Option 1
ABA National Trust School
AND
ABA Graduate Trust School (Level 1 & 2);
Option 2
ABA Wealth Management and Trust Online Training Courses (all courses required)
AND
ABA
CTFA Online Review Course
Other ICB-approved wealth management training programs:
Option 3: Cannon Financial Institute Trust Schools (Level I, II and III)
Option 4: Campbell University's Trust & Investment Management Program
Five (5) years experience in wealth management and a bachelor's degree
Ten (10) years experience in wealth management
Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (
CTFA) Benefits
Take Your Career to the Next Level
Why pursue your
CTFA designation? Consider these professional benefits and member values:
Career Enhancement — Earning the
CTFA designation differentiates you from the competition and helps employers and clients identify you as a skilled, knowledgeable trust and wealth advisor. It's an industry gold standard that rewards your professional expertise.
Free Subscription —
CTFAs enjoy a free subscription to ABA Trust Letter, a monthly electronic publication that arrives 12 times per year.
Continuing Education (CE) Database —
CTFAs can identify relevant professional development options quickly and easily with the members-only ICB Certification Manager, which highlights continuing education programs that have been approved for ICB credits.
Membership Directory — Access to the exclusive Membership Directory enables
CTFAs to connect with peers who share their designations.
New Member Referral Incentives — Refer one person who applies for a certification exam in a given calendar year, and ICB will waive your certification renewal fee for the next calendar year, up to $249. Please use the ICB Member Referral Form.
ICB Member Discount -
CTFAs receive special pricing for registration to the ABA Wealth Management & Trust Conference.
CTFA Exam Overview
Exam Facts
200 multiple-choice questions
Maximum 4 hour timeframe allowed
Calculators or other devices not permitted
Sample questions for the
CTFA examination.
Question Parameters
ICB ensures that each question is complete, fair and measures only the required knowledge areas. Psychometricians and advisory board members ensure that each question is considered only when there is one right, clear answer and all cultural, geographical, organization biases and minute details eliminated. New questions are created and reviewed for relevance, content and difficulty by an exam development team comprised of advisory board members, ICB staff, and psychometricians.
Some questions may contain a superlative (i.e. MOST), a pejorative (i.e. LEAST), or a negative (i.e. NOT) to recreate some types of decisions that you may confront.
Exam Scoring and Reporting
The exam is scored on a "Pass/Fail" system using a predetermined cut off score based on advisory board analysis of the degree of difficulty for each question.
A preliminary instant pass/fail outcome is provided for computer based exams at testing centers.
Each exam contains a small number of randomly embedded questions that are included for statistical research purposes. These questions do not count against candidate scores. This form of piloting questions before they are scorable is part of ICB's efforts in continuous quality improvement.
Official score results are delivered for both computer based and paper and pencil exams within 4 weeks via email.
Exams are scored based on your personal performance and are not graded on a curve.
Score results are confidential. You must sign an Exam Score Release Form if you want to authorize a third party to receive your score results.
Exam Retakes
Effective January 2015, you must wait a minimum of 6 months before you are allowed to retake the
CTFA exam on the next scheduled exam date.
You must forward the appropriate fee along with the exam retake form.
There is no limit to the number of times you can take the exam.
You must pass the exam within a 3 year period from the date of your first exam attempt or a new application and fee is required.
Examination Misconduct
All persons taking one of ICB's examinations are expected to abide by all rules and regulations governing the examination before, during and after the examination. Possession of copies of any current or previous examination given by ICB is not authorized and is a violation of ICB's rules governing certification exams. Persons taking ICB certification examinations are not permitted to take notes about the examination.
Any person found to have violated any of the rules governing ICB certification exams, or to have conducted themselves in a dishonest or unethical manner with respect to the taking of an ICB certification exam is subject to sanctions determined to be appropriate by ICB, in its sole discretion, including, but not limited to: denial of certification; denial of the right to take any or all ICB examinations. Answer sheets provided at paper/pencil testing sites determined, before grading, to have been completed by a person who has violated ICB examination rules will not be graded. ICB reserves the right to pursue any and all remedies available to it, including legal remedies, with respect to any violation of its examination rules against anyone who violated ICB's examination rules or aided another in violating these rules.
