USA Career Change Financial Planner to CPA Business Education Course?'s

[quadzilla200]

Greetings All. I've been feeling burned out in my current profession. I've taken enough personality quizzes to know that I'm very analytical. I'm thinking I want to get into a more analytical field like accounting, where human emotion doesn't cause analysis to be thrown out the window. However, I'm hitting major roadblocks.
I actually didn't have a business degree when I graduated college, but studied my butt off a few years ago and got my CFP. The frustrating part I'm seeing is that for me to get my Master's of Accountancy would be 60 hours! so that I qualify for my state's requirements. Half of those hours are General business courses that will teach me next to nothing since I have CFP credential and industry experience. I'm trying to find a way around that requirement, as that extra 30 hours would add 2 more years of education on top of the 2 for the accounting courses. I know each state has different requirements for sitting for the CPA. Do any have more lenient restrictions with the General Business courses, and secondly is it based on where you live as to which state can issue it?
Thanks for your help.

 

[salesaccountant]

I can't help you with your question about the education but I was a successful accountant for 15 years and changed to become a very successful financial adviser for 14 years until recently. Now burned out with that when my market fell apart in 2009/10. Now just scraping the bucket with a sales job to make ends meet.

But if you want to talk about what it is like to be in accounting let me know cause I have similar experience on both sides of the fence.

 

[quadzilla200]

Thanks for your reply. I'll try to be as succinct as possible.
I make great money (highly overpaid in my opinion), but know that could end in the next market crash. I also find the job unfulfilling, because as analytical as I am, I realize that analysis is a bit of a joke in investing. I use that term loosely, but truthfully behavioral economics, herd mentality, and billionaires move the market, and usually in the opposite way as what many analysts believe.
Would accounting alleviate that ? It would seem that the numbers add up at the end of the day, that you aren't sitting there trying to understand why the market dropped 1000 points in a week when nobody was predicting it.

Hopefully that makes sense. I could see myself ending up in a one stop shop, where they have CFP's, CFA's and CPA's and estate planning attorneys in one house.
Honestly, my goal would be to be the controller or CFO of a large non profit. I see no way to do more meaningful career work as a financial planner, where if as an eventual CPA I would have the ability to head down those paths at some point. The part I enjoy most about my job besides the clients themselves is doing the retirement planning, because the numbers add up (as long as they get the rate of return and stick to their budgets) .

I have a decent understanding of business retirement plans and structures and charitable trusts etc and it would seem I could discuss more often with clients as a CPA. I'm truly tired of the investment piece the more I think about it.

I would be curious about flexibility of schedule as that is honestly my favorite part of my job. I know, depending on him I'm in private practice or if I'm corporate would dictate that flexibility.

 

[numbersguy79]

Part 1 .... the state you get licensed in is the state you want to practice in... residency is not an issue. You can live in say Connecticut, but get your license in NY and PA if you want to have clients there. Just google 'state board of accountancy' for any state to see their specific requirements... most of them are quite similar now. Also NASBA 'national association of state boards of accountancy' has a lot of info, and actually governs the 'uniform CPA exam'

Part 2 .... CPA is not required to be CFO of a non-profit.. .. but you mentioned several other paths.... if you went to a one-stop shop with CFP's, CFA's, CPA's & attorneys... what would the CPA do to help you at this point in your career... they would see your experience and leverage that on the CFP side wouldn't they? Going from a high earning sales/CFP to preparing someone's tax return sounds like a demotion to me... unless you were starting the business or going in with friends/partners, I would think you have too much experience and earn too much to start over as a CPA... being a CPA enables you to sign a tax return, sign an audit, etc... why not be the CFP in a place that does that but not be that guy?

Also... many master programs are only 30 credits... look around some more... you may be able to meet the education requirements with a 30 credit program and then fill in any gaps taking one-off classes at a local college, to save some time.... my combination of programs ended up with a gap where I needed 2 specific classes, I literally took them at a county college with a bunch of 18 year old kids to get it over with, ended up being good friends with one of the professors.

 

[numbersguy79]

Oh another thing... a lot of states have an experience clause... you can TAKE the cpa exam but not become actually licensed without, say, 2 years of relevant experience under a CPA and have a letter to submit to the state board