AFC
®
Experience Guide
Updated May 2024
AFC® Experience Guide
2
Hello!
Congratulations on your decision to pursue the Accredited Financial Counselor
®
(AFC
®
)
certification.
As an NCCA accredited certification, you can be confident that your AFC certification will
set you apart and send a message of credibility and trustworthiness to your clients.
To ensure we uphold the highest standards, all AFC candidates must meet an experience
requirement in the field of financial counseling or education.
AFC certified professionals work in many different fields, and in many different roles. We
love this diversity and want to provide candidates with different ways to earn experience
hours and succeed.
We hope this guide will provide answers to your questions about the AFC experience
requirement and act as a map as you plan your road to certification.
If you have any questions, you can reach us at cer[email protected] or 614-368-1055.
Best of luck and enjoy the experience!
-The AFCPE
®
Team
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What is the AFC?
The Accredited Financial Counselor designation is a specialty credential for professionals
interested in expanding accessibility to high-quality financial counseling, coaching, and
education. The AFC helps professionals better understand how diverse backgrounds,
perspectives, and experiences impact individuals’ money behavior.
What does an AFC do?
● Educate clients in sound financial principles
● Support clients through financial challenges and opportunities
● Help clients identify and modify ineffective money behaviors
● Guide clients in successful strategies to achieve their goals
Where does an AFC work?
AFC certified professionals work across the United States and on military bases around
the world as researchers, educators, University Extension staff, and financial counselors
and coaches. Some are self-employed private practitioners providing a variety of services
to clients. Others work in financial planning firms, law firms, credit and debt repayment
agencies, banks and credit unions, government agencies, and many other organizations
committed to improving the financial capability of individuals and families.
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Contents
1. The Experience Requirement
2. Getting Started
3. Experience Hour Categories
a. Counseling & Coaching
b. Teach Financial Education Classes/Workshops
c. Supervising Financial Counselors or Programs
d. Develop Financial Education/Classes/Curriculum/Educational Content
e. Related Coursework
f. Related Training, Conference, Meeting, Seminar
g. Related Webinars
h. Book Review
i. Website Review
j. AFCPE Symposium
4. AFC Supervised Experience
5. Submitting Experience Hours
6. Experience Verification Form
7. Resources
8. AFCPE Membership
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The Experience Requirement
The Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC
®
) certification requires successful completion of
education, an exam, experience, and ethics.
Candidates must obtain 1,000* hours of experience and submit requisite Experience
Verification Form(s) to satisfy the experience requirement.
Candidates do not need to pass the exam to begin obtaining or submitting experience
hours. There is a ten-year window for calculating experience hours: candidates may
include hours from seven years preceding their AFC enrollment and have up to three years
from enrollment to complete their certification*. For more details on certification
requirements, please see the AFC Candidate Handbook.
Experience can be paid or unpaid, but all experience hours must relate to one or more of
the AFC Core Competencies. Candidates do not need experience in each of the
competency categories.
Sample experience timeline:
*FINRA Foundation Fellows’ experience assignment and timeline may differ. Prior experience is considered in the
experience assignment.
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Getting Started
Don’t complicate it.
The experience requirement for AFC
certification is an important component
in preparing you to be an AFC.
Experience gives context to personal
finance concepts, helps us build
confidence, and fosters deeper learning.
While experience is a vital component
of becoming a great financial counselor,
it doesn’t need to be complicated. Here
are some tips to consider as you think
about a plan for your experience
requirement.
1. Read this guide. You don’t have to read it cover to cover but familiarize yourself
with the guidelines and the categories that are relevant to you (you do not need
experience hours in every category).
2. Make a plan. Before you start submitting hours, plan for how you will earn and
report your hours. Planning will prevent you from falling short and can make
reporting more efficient.
3. Report existing hours. Candidates may report experience hours from seven years
preceding their enrollment date. It’s possible that you have already met the
experience requirement.
4. Don’t complicate it. If you spend most of your time working with clients, you may
not need to report webinars, trainings, and book reviews to meet the experience
requirement.
5. Consolidate submissions. We don’t expect you to submit an experience form for
each workshop you teach or client you sit with. In fact, many candidates can submit
all 1000 hours on a single form. Even things like webinars can be consolidated into
fewer submissions. Save yourself time and plan for how you will submit your hours.
6. Reach out. If you’re unsure if something qualifies as experience or you don’t know
the best way to submit something, send us an email or give us a call—we’re happy
to help!
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Experience Hour Categories
AFC certified professionals work in many different roles in many different fields. We want
to be sure that our experience hour guidelines reflect this diversity. We understand that
financial counseling and education comes in all shapes and sizes, and we strive to meet
our candidates where they are.
In the next few pages, you will see the experience categories for AFC certification with a
detailed description of each. Please use this information while planning your experience
opportunities and reporting your hours at my.afcpe.org.
Candidates do not need to earn experience in every category, nor do they need experience
that covers all AFC Core Competencies. Some categories have a cap, or ceiling, on the
number of hours a candidate can earn.
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Financial counseling, coaching, and education can take place in-person, virtually, or on the
phone. We understand that an appointment involves preparation, research, and follow-up.
Candidates should give themselves credit for all these activities—not just face-to-face
time. Similarly, tax preparation and creating financial plans for clients can be reported in
this category. Administrative tasks such as scheduling and grant reporting cannot be
included.
Financial counseling/coaching/education, research and follow-up for
clients, preparing analysis/reports/plans for clients, tax preparation,
financial aid counseling, education by personal bankers, etc.
Data entry, scheduling, administrative tasks, marketing, grant reporting,
general employee training, etc.
Example- You meet with a client for 60 minutes to discuss a new job opportunity. After
the session, you spend 15 minutes doing research and 15 minutes putting together a
benefit comparison for the client. You and the client speak on the phone for 30 minutes as
a follow up appointment. You then spend 30 minutes logging information for a grant
report.
Approved
Counseling Session
60 mins
30 mins
Research
15 mins
Benefit Comp
15 mins
Follow-up
30 mins
Total Experience
2 hours
Supporting Documents: Supervisor name and contact information will generally be
adequate. Candidates may include a log of counseling hours (please refrain from including
client names for confidentiality). Self-employed/pro-bono submissions without a
supervisor must provide a log or summary of hours. AFCPE reserves the right to request
documentation for any submission.
Submission Tip: Hours do not need to be submitted by appointment or per client;
candidates may submit their hours all at once or on a quarterly or monthly basis.
Counseling & Coaching Max Hours: 100%
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Workshops and classes can be taught in person or virtually. Candidates may report
teaching time as well as time spent researching and writing their presentation. Topics
must relate to the AFC Core Competencies. Time spent on design-specific or
administrative tasks such as designing slides or copying handouts may not be included.
Presentation time, recording time, Q&A sessions, research, writing
content, creating tools/resources, etc.
Presentation design, building handout packets, marketing/promotion, etc.
Example- A counselor volunteers to put together a workshop on credit scores for her
church. She spends 8 hours researching the topic, writing the presentation, and finding
resources for participants. It takes the counselor 4 hours to put the information into
PowerPoint. The counselor delivers the 1-hour workshop 7 times.
Approved
Research/Writing
8 hours
4 hours
Teaching
7 hours
Total Experience
15 hours
Supporting Documents: Supervisor name and contact information will generally be
adequate. Candidates may include a log of workshop hours. Self-employed/pro-bono
submissions without a supervisor must provide a log or summary of hours. AFCPE
reserves the right to request documentation for any submission.
Submission Tip: Classes/Workshops do not need to be submitted individually; candidates
may submit their hours all at once or on a quarterly or monthly basis.
Teach Financial Education Classes/Workshops Max Hours: 100%
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Managers, supervisors, or directors of financial counselors or programs may submit
experience hours dedicated to these counselors and/or programs. Administrative time and
time spent on non-qualifying employees or programs may not be included.
Time training staff on AFC Core Competency related material, developing
or maintaining related programming, related meetings, etc.
General supervision/managerial tasks, time not related to applicable
programming/staff, unrelated meetings, grant writing, marketing, etc.
Example- A supervisor at a non-profit oversees several programs, including financial
literacy, food security, and employment readiness. She estimates that managing the
financial literacy program and staff takes up 10% of her time, not including administrative
duties. The employment readiness program demands 50% of her time, but only a fraction
of the program relates to the AFC Core Competencies—5%. The supervisor works 40
hours a week and has been in the position for 1 year.
Approved
Financial Literacy
Programming
208 hours
1,820 hours
Employment
Readiness
Programming
52 hours
Total Experience
260 hours
Supporting Documents: Supervisor name and contact information will generally be
adequate. Candidates may include a log of supervisory hours. Self-employed submissions
without a supervisor must provide a log or summary of hours. AFCPE reserves the right to
request documentation for any submission.
Supervising Financial Counselors or Programs Max Hours: 100%
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Creating or updating classes, curriculum, videos, blogs, podcasts, and other educational
content may be reported in this category. Content must be original, providing a review or
summary of material(s) created by another individual will not be accepted in this category.
AFCPE will make the final determination if submissions meet the definition of educational
content.
Experience earned in this category is intended to give candidates credit for their work in
researching and writing educational materials. Submissions in this category should be of
sufficient quality and depth that the candidate learned from the experience--submissions
that do not meet this test may be rejected. Because this experience category covers a wide
range of submission types, we use the following guidelines to approve hours to ensure a
fair analysis of submissions:
• Written materials will be approved for up to 1 experience hour per 200 words.
• Video content, workshops, podcasts, etc. will be approved for up to 10 experience
hours per 1 hour of content.
• Candidates may submit one experience form per project. Multiple submissions for a
single project will not be accepted.
• A maximum of 50 hours will be awarded for any single project. Substantial or
complex projects may be considered for additional hours.
• Submissions reporting hours that are not commensurate with the content will be
rejected.
Research, writing content, recording, updating existing content, etc.
Creating material without an intended audience, editing video or audio,
design-specific work, etc.
Example- A candidate creates a PowerPoint presentation to help educate members of her
church on credit building. The presentation is estimated to be 1 hour. The candidate spent
Develop Financial Education Classes/Curriculum/ Max Hours: 70%
Educational Content
AFC® Experience Guide
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about 15 hours on the project. Five hours of her time was spent designing marketing
materials and finding photos for the slide deck.
Approved
Credit Building
Presentation
10 hours
5 hours
Total Experience
10 hours
Supporting Documents: For presentations and curriculum, candidates must submit a copy
of the content for review (pdf preferred). For podcasts, videos, and other digital media, a
link to the content must be provided. Where possible, experience within the same category
should be reported together in a single submission.
Supporting documentation must display:
1) How content relates to the AFC Core Competencies,
2) The estimated time of completion for the end user OR word count, and
3) The intended audience for the content.
AFCPE reserves the right to request documentation for any submission.
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Candidates who complete coursework through a college or university that is related to the
AFC Core Competencies may include this time towards their experience hours.
Coursework must be related to personal finance, financial counseling, and/or debt
management. Courses that are centered on business or corporate finance will not be
approved for experience hours (many MBA classes do not meet our guidelines for
experience hours). Candidates will need to submit a syllabus and transcript showing
successful completion of the course. AFCPE will award 20 experience hours for every 1
credit hour.
Coursework on personal income tax, behavioral economics,
counseling/coaching, financial planning, etc.
Coursework that is business-specific, corporate finance or accounting,
corporate taxation, general leadership, etc.
Example- A candidate is taking two courses over the summer at a local college, Personal
Income Tax and Managerial Accounting. Both are 3 credit courses. The candidate
completes both courses with a passing grade.
Approved
Personal Income Tax
60 hours
60 hours
Total Experience
60 hours
Supporting Documents: Candidates must include a syllabus or course outline that displays
how coursework relates to the AFC Core Competencies and documentation of course
completion with a passing grade.
Related Coursework Max Hours: 10%
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Candidates who earn a certification or license that is related to the AFC Core
Competencies may include this in their experience hours. Attending trainings, conferences,
and other meetings can be a great way to learn new information and network with fellow
professionals. Events must relate to the AFC Core Competencies and candidates must
show proof of completion/attendance. Training can be in-person or virtual.
Train-the-trainer opportunities, earning the CFP designation, general
training related to personal finance, attending a conference, Series 65
prep class, etc.
General employee/staff meetings, training on employer-specific policies,
meeting with fellow candidates for exam prep, listening to podcasts, etc.
Example- A candidate’s employer sends her to a conference on the economics of college
costs. It is a 2-day event with 12 hours of content. Additionally, this candidate is a member
of a local financial capability network that meets monthly for 2 hours; the group has been
meeting for one year. Last month, the candidate participated in a 2-hour customer service
training required for everyone at her organization.
Approved
Conference
12 hours
2 hours
Financial Capability
Network
24 hours
Total Experience
36 hours
Supporting Documents: Candidates must include proof of attendance via a roster,
certificate, registration confirmation document, materials provided at the training, or letter
from the provider. A candidate’s notes from the training may be accepted when other
documents are unavailable. Documentation must display the number of training hours.
Related Training, Certification or License, Max Hours: 10%
Conference, Meeting, or Seminar
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AFCPE members receive free access to AFCPE webinars, and this can be a valuable
resource for learning and earning experience hours. There are also many other
opportunities for webinars from other organizations. Webinars do not need to be AFCPE-
sponsored but must relate to the AFC Core Competencies. Candidates should maintain a
log and be prepared to show verification of participation.
Webinars focused on personal finance, counseling/coaching skills,
consumer economics, financial planning, etc.
Employer-specific training, webinars focused on business concepts,
promotional or product-specific webinars, etc.
Example- A candidate attends a month-long webinar series on changes in personal
income tax law. The series contains a total of 4 hours of content. Also that month, the
candidate attended a 1-hour webinar training on new reporting software her organization
is implementing.
Approved
Tax Law Webinar
Series
4 hours
1 hour
Total Experience
4 hours
Supporting Documents: Candidates must include verification of participation via a roster,
certificate, registration confirmation, materials provided at the training, or letter from the
provider. A candidate’s notes from the training may be accepted when other documents
are unavailable. For webinars sponsored by AFCPE, candidates may list AFCPE as the
supervisor and may use the completion code as verification of completion.
Submission Tip: You can submit multiple webinars on a single experience form. For AFCPE
webinars, you can submit a log with the webinar titles and completion codes—no other
documentation needed. For other webinars, consider uploading a log of the webinars and
attaching your corresponding documentation.
Related Webinars Max Hours: 10%
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Candidates may read books that are related to the AFC Core Competencies and provide a
summary review for experience hours. AFCPE will award 5 hours for every 100 pages of
content. Candidates must provide the book title and author, number of pages, and a
summary of the text including how the learning relates to the AFC Core Competencies.
Texts required by the candidate’s education requirement/pathway may not be reviewed
for experience hours.
The Financial Diaries, Freakonomics, Happy Money, Crucial Conversations,
etc.
Books focused on sales, general leadership, self-improvement, or other
unrelated topics. Texts required by your education pathway, etc.
Example- A candidate reads 3 books while studying for her AFC exam and provides a
review of each: Freakonomics (~350 pages), Interpersonal Communication (~400 pages),
and Guide to Grant Writing (~250 pages).
Approved
Freakonomics
17.5 hours
12.5 hours
Interpersonal
Communication
20 hours
Total Experience
37.5 hours
Supporting Documents: Book reviews must include the following to be accepted: 1) Book
title and author, 2) Number of pages, 3) A 250-1000 word summary of text answering the
following questions:
1. How does your learning from this text relate to the AFC Core Competencies?
2. How could you use the information that you learned in future work with clients?
3. Why did you choose this book?
For this category, candidates may list AFCPE as the supervisor.
Book Review Max Hours: 5%
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There is an endless supply of information online that is helpful to financial counselors--
government resources, non-profit education sites, personal finance research, community
resources, tools available to clients, and much more. It is important that counselors are
familiar with these resources. AFCPE will allow up to 5 hours of experience per website
review. The material must relate to the AFC Core Competencies, and candidates must
provide a summary of their learning along with the website URL. Websites required by
the candidate’s education pathway may not be reviewed for experience hours.
Tools and resources for clients, continuing education for counselors,
consumerfinance.gov, finra.org, youneedabudget.com, healthcare.gov,
etc.
grants.gov, census.gov, afcpe.instructure.com, etc.
Example- A counselor is building a resource library for her clients. As she builds the library,
she reviews several online resources: FDIC Money Smart for Adults (5 hours), Prosperity
NOW (3 hours), and consumer tools available via the IRS (5 hours). The counselor also
spends 1 hour researching grants to fund a computer lab for her organization.
Approved
Money Smart
5 hours
1 hour
Prosperity NOW
3 hours
IRS
5 hours
Total Experience
13 hours
Supporting Documents: Website reviews must include the following to be accepted: 1)
Website URL, 2) A 250-1000 word summary of the website answering the following
questions:
1. How does your learning from this website relate to the AFC Core Competencies?
2. How could you use the information that you learned in future work with clients?
For this category, candidates may list AFCPE as the supervisor.
Website Review Max Hours: 5%
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Attending AFCPE’s annual Symposium can be a great way for candidates to learn,
network, and have fun—you can also earn some experience hours while you’re at it! Each
year, the AFCPE Symposium consists of 15 hours of content.
Learn more about Symposium!
Pre-symposium events and ancillary trainings may be submitted separately under the
Related Training category.
Supporting Documents: Proof of attendance as evidenced by registration confirmation and
completion of Symposium survey. For this category, candidates may list AFCPE as the
supervisor.
AFCPE Symposium Max Hours: 15/year
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Experience under the supervision of an AFC can be extremely valuable and can be
reported as 1.5 hours for every 1 hour of experience. This ratio is permitted in the
following categories:
• One-to-one Counseling
• Teach Financial Education Classes/Workshops
• Develop Financial Education Classes/Curriculum/Educational Content
When reporting experience hours under this rule, candidates should enter their total hours
using the 1:1.5 ratio. For example, a candidate has 100 clock hours of counseling under the
supervision of an AFC. The candidate should report 150 experience hours. The candidate
must disclose this in the Description section of the experience submission and must list an
active AFC in the supervisor section of the form.
Supporting Documents: Candidates must provide an Experience Verification Form signed
by the supervising AFC.
AFC Supervised Experience
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Submitting Experience Hours
Candidates can submit experience hours at any point after enrollment; you do not need to
complete the exam before logging experience hours.
When possible, candidates are encouraged to group their experiences into fewer
submissions. For example, candidates should submit their counseling hours monthly, or
even once all hours are completed rather than submitting each individual counseling
session. *FINRA Foundation Fellows must report experience hours monthly.
To Submit Experience Hours:
1. Login at my.afcpe.org
2. Click on Your Certification Dashboard.
3. From the experience tile, you can view a summary of previously submitted hours and
add new submissions.
4. To add experience hours, click the Add Experience button from the experience tile.
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5. Complete the form:
Registration: Select the certification program you are submitting experience for
Service Type: Select the category that best fits your experience submission
Organization: Where did you complete the experience?
Job Title: What was your role?
Total Hours: How many hours are you requesting for this experience submission?
Verifier Name: Who supervised your work?
• For self-employed/pro-bono experience, candidates will list themselves;
supporting documentation will be required
• Candidates may list AFCPE as the supervisor for webinar, book review, and
website review categories if they wish
Verifier Email: This is required as submissions are selected, at random, for audit
Verifier Phone: This is required as submissions are selected, at random, for audit
Description: Please provide a description of the experience. See Experience
Categories for full requirements by category. For pre-approved webinars, enter the
completion code here.
Start Date: When did the experience begin? Remember that you may only report
hours from seven years prior to your enrollment.
End Date: When did the experience end?
Supporting Documents: If required, please provide support for your experience
submission. See Experience Categories for full requirements by category.
6. Your submission will be reviewed within 5 business days. AFCPE may require
additional information to process some requests, and candidates will receive
notification of the additional information needed.
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Tips for submitting Experience Hours:
• Many candidates can satisfy the experience requirement with a single, or very few,
experience hour submissions. For example, a candidate working as a financial
counselor can wait until they have earned the full 1000 counseling hours and
submit them all at once. Where possible, experience within the same category
should be reported together in a single submission. Individual counseling sessions
do not need to be submitted individually, several webinars may be submitted
together, etc.
• Provide a clear description of your work. Submissions with vague descriptions such
as “counseling” or “banking” will be rejected.
• Only include hours from the allowable reporting period. Candidates can include
hours from seven years prior to enrollment and have up to three years to complete
certification. Hours submitted from outside this timeframe will be rejected.
• Please include the total number of hours, not the number of hours worked weekly.
• Typically, financial counselors/educators do not engage in approved activities for a
full 40 hours/week. Administration, scheduling, reporting, etc. are not permitted
activities for AFC experience. Submissions that assume a full 40 hours/week of
approved activities will be rejected.
• Hours may only be submitted once—candidates cannot submit the same hours in
multiple categories.
• It is recommended that candidates keep records of their experience hours. AFCPE
reserves the right to request documentation for any submission at any time.
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Experience Verification Form
As of August 1, 2020, AFCPE no longer requires letters of recommendation for
certification. In lieu of recommendation letters, candidates must submit an Experience
Verification Form(s). Candidates must provide a separate form for each organization they
are reporting experience hours from. Candidates will upload this form after their 1000
experience hours have been approved via my.afpce.org, and after they have passed the
exam.
Candidates may upload the Verification form to their my.afcpe.org account once they
have satisfied the 1000-hour requirement and passed the exam. The form is accessible
from the candidate dashboard under Certification Resources.
AFCPE
®
Verifier Qualification Requirements
The verification must be performed by a qualified independent third party not related to the candidate:
• Verifiers must be authorized by the company listed on the verification form to verify employment
or experience.
-OR-
• Verifiers must have appropriate professional experience related to personal finance, financial
counseling, financial education, financial planning, or related field, AND
• Verifiers must be knowledgeable about the AFCPE Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics and
agree that, to the best of their knowledge, these standards have been upheld by the candidate
during the accumulation of their experience, AND
• Verifiers must be knowledgeable about the AFC Core Competencies and understand that
qualified experience must relate to these.
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Resources
• AFC Candidate Handbook
• AFC Core Competencies
• Experience is the Best Teacher
• The Standard Newsletter, Experience
• Frequently Asked Questions
• AFCPE Membership
Looking for volunteer opportunities? While most opportunities exist at the local level, here
are a few places to get started:
• AFCPE Experience Portal
• Find My United Way
• Find My Community Action Agency
• VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) Program
• Volunteer Match
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AFCPE
®
Membership- at a discount!
AFCPE Membership is the intersection of financial education, research, and practice–and a
great resource as you work towards your AFC Certification. As a candidate, you can enjoy
all the benefits of Membership at a discount!
Here are a Few Ways Membership Supports AFC Candidates
• Free (and discounted) professional development webinars - AFC Candidates can
earn up to 10% of their experience hours from webinars. Membership makes this
easy by providing FREE exclusive content that has been pre-approved for
experience hours.
• JFCP Journal Quizzes - AFCPE Members get free access to the Journal of Financial
Counseling and Planning (JFCP). With each issue, members are provided access to
journal quizzes. Candidates can earn 2 experience hours per quiz in the Related
Training category.
• Monthly Networking Opportunities & Access the AFCPE Member Exchange-
Through monthly virtual networking opportunities, and our exclusive online
membership community platform, you can connect with other professionals in the
field, learn from their experiences, share new ideas and best practices, and more!
• And More!!
There is something for everyone at AFCPE.
Become a member today!