Help people plan retirement, taxes, insurance and savings. Licences to sell, a credential to advise.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $75,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $50,000 at the lower end to about $152,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
4 to 7 years after high school, on the usual route.
$32,000 to $54,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$75,000
Lower end
$50,000
Upper end
$152,000
Job Bank's national median is $36.06 an hour, about $75,000 a year full time. The top end is wide because many planners earn commissions or a percentage of the money they manage. Building a client list takes years, and the early ones can be thin.
$43.72 an hour
The median in Yukon, about $91,000 a year, the highest in Canada
The Northwest Territories are close at $43.02. Among the provinces, Alberta is highest at $39.47 and Nova Scotia lowest at $31.25. Ontario's median matches the national $36.06.
Roughly, all in
$32,000 to $54,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a four year bachelor's degree at the cheaper end of Ontario tuition, with your employer covering the product licences for mutual funds and life insurance once you are on staff, which most banks and firms do. The high end is a more expensive degree plus paying for the CFP (Certified Financial Planner) education and exams yourself through FP Canada (Financial Planning Canada), the national certification body, spread over a few years. Annual certification and licence fees of a few hundred dollars a year continue for your whole career and are not in these numbers. If you are already working in a bank branch, the firm paying for your licensing courses can bring your own cost close to just the degree.
Most banks and firms pay for licensing courses once you are on staff, so your own cost is mostly the degree.
Salary plus bonus
Bank and credit union planners. Steady, with a ceiling.
Commission
A cut of the products you sell. Some of it keeps paying every year a client stays invested.
Fee-based
A percentage of the money you manage, charged every year.
Fee-only
Hourly or flat fees for a plan, no product sales. A small but growing group.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A degree, product licences, then a planning credential earned while you work.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Math, business, accounting, and anything with presenting. You will explain money to nervous people for a living.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Business, commerce, economics or finance. FP Canada (the national certification body) requires a bachelor's degree for its top credential, or 10 years of planning work instead.
Get licensed to sell
A few months
A mutual funds course and the LLQP (Life Licence Qualification Program) for insurance. Quebec does not use the LLQP: there the insurance exams are set by the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers, Quebec's financial regulator). Usually done in your first months on the job.
QAFP (Qualified Associate Financial Planner)
1 to 2 years
FP Canada's entry credential: coursework, an exam and about a year of experience.
CFP (Certified Financial Planner)
About 3 years
The full credential: more coursework, a national exam and about 3 years of qualifying work experience.
Math
Compound interest, tax brackets and retirement projections.
Accounting or business
English
Plans are written documents. Clients must understand them.
Drama, debate or anything with speaking
Half the job is conversation.
Quebec protects the title by law: you need the diploma of the Institut de planification financière and a certificate from the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers, Quebec's financial regulator). Ontario limits the titles financial planner and financial advisor to people with an approved credential such as the CFP (Certified Financial Planner). Saskatchewan has a similar law, and New Brunswick's took effect on January 1, 2026. Everywhere in Canada, selling mutual funds, securities or insurance needs a provincial licence no matter what you call yourself.
Quebec reserves the title financial planner by law. Instead of the FP Canada (Financial Planning Canada) route, you earn the Quebec institute's diploma and a certificate from the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers, Quebec's financial regulator).
Finish Secondary V, then CEGEP
2 years after Secondary V
A 2 year DEC (Diploma of College Studies) at a CEGEP (public college) leads to university. Social Science with math suits business programs.
University training the institute recognizes
About 3 years
A bachelor's with a financial planning concentration, or a certificate in personal financial planning plus two other university certificates. In English, McGill's graduate certificate in financial planning is on the list.
The institute's professional course
About 3 months
Run by the Institut de planification financière (the Institute of Financial Planning, formerly the IQPF). Online classes in French or English, every spring and fall. $3,129 plus tax, with the reference books.
Final exam
2 parts
A case study worth 70% and multiple choice worth 30%, online. Results come about two months later. A pass earns the diploma in financial planning.
Certificate from the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers)
After the exam
Apply within six years of passing the exam. Only then can you use the title financial planner (Pl. Fin.).
If you already hold FP Canada's CFP (Certified Financial Planner), the institute has a shorter path: 7 online modules on Quebec law, estates, tax, investments, insurance and retirement plans such as the Quebec Pension Plan. It is about 40 hours over 6 to 8 weeks and costs $1,199 plus tax, plus a $299 file fee. You then pass the institute's certification exam.
Things you don't need, but that help.
CFP (Certified Financial Planner)
The standard. Required or preferred by most employers for senior roles.
CIM (Chartered Investment Manager)
Lets you manage portfolios directly, not just recommend funds.
CLU (Chartered Life Underwriter)
For insurance-heavy and estate-planning practices.
CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant)
Planners who also do tax are rare and in demand.
Sales or customer service experience
Retail, restaurants, call centres. Employers want proof you can talk to strangers.
Your own investing habits
Open a TFSA (Tax-Free Savings Account) and learn by doing.
French
Opens jobs in Quebec and New Brunswick.
A network
Your first clients are usually people you already know.
A small group of planners refuse commissions and charge clients a flat or hourly fee for a written plan, the way a lawyer or accountant does. It removes the pressure to sell products and clients trust it, but you need the CFP (Certified Financial Planner) credential and enough experience that people will pay you for advice alone. Most fee-only planners start in a bank or firm and go independent after 5 to 10 years.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Three to five client meetings, in person or by video: a couple planning retirement, a new parent asking about an RESP (registered education savings plan), a small business owner worried about tax. Between meetings you build plans in software, review portfolios, answer emails and calls, and do the compliance paperwork that every licensed sale requires. Evenings are busy because clients work during the day. Independent planners also spend hours each week finding new clients.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank counted about 118,800 people in Canada in 2023 in the group that includes financial planners and financial advisors, and 33% were aged 50 and over. Retirements will open a lot of seats, and many retiring planners sell their client list to a younger one.
FP Canada (the national certification body) says the employers with the most CFP (Certified Financial Planner) professionals are RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), TD (Toronto-Dominion Bank), IG Wealth Management, CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce), BMO (Bank of Montreal), Scotiabank, Sun Life, Assante and Manulife.
Every provincial regulator keeps a public list of licensed advisors and planners. Before anyone touches your money, you can look them up online in minutes.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Money and finance first, then the rest of the field. See every career in business and money.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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