The Externship from Amplified Planning

The Externship is only available during the summer — from June to August! We only host this 8-week program once a year because it is so in-depth and requires the support of our entire team, all our sponsors, and our tech partners. It’s a labor of love, one that we look forward to each year. 

This means that you can only join Externship in June each summer. Registration generally opens up in April, so stay tuned! You can also join our Insider List if you want to be notified when Externship registration opens! 

The Externship will be between 15-25 hours every week if taken within eight weeks. This includes time in the course, time spent working on the homework and time learning the software. To earn 500 CFP Board Standard Pathway experience hours, you will need to complete all homework assignments before the end of the program.

Participants will have an additional four weeks after the program conclusion to complete course work. The last day to complete any course work to complete the program and/or obtain the 500 Standard Pathway experience hours is approximately 4 weeks after the live program ends (generally the end of of August).

Yes! In previous years, we’ve had Externs who worked a full-time job and were still able to participate and complete The Externship. The program was designed with scheduling flexibility in mind and can be completed on your time. There are live elements each week, but they are recorded and available for you to watch at your convenience.

Every week there will be live office hours and calls. We would love it if you could make the calls and ask questions live, but if you can’t, replays will be posted within 24 hours for you to watch. 

Scheduled live office hours are every Wednesday at 11am, 1pm and 3pm CT. Additional live calls will be scheduled throughout the week based on speaker availability and specific programming. Externs will be provided with a calendar of events to help manage their schedule. 

If you have a conflict, don’t worry, you will be able to watch the replays!

You will need a modern browser to access the course on our site and the ability to access files hosted by Google. You’ll also need a U.S.-based IP address, so use a VPN if needed!

To join live meetings and webinars, you will need to use Zoom. A free account works just fine! 

Here is a sample week. NOTE: Not all weeks will perfectly align with this!

Monday – Meet the weekly experts as they showcase how they do financial planning

Tuesday – Technology training, homework assignments given, sit in on real financial planning meetings with Hannah Moore, CFP®, or a dedicated expert

Wednesday – Live office hours with experts (11am, 1pm, 3pm CT)

Thursday – Live technology training, special topics

Friday – Level-up sessions, homework walkthroughs

The Externship is designed to introduce you to some basic financial planning principles — and to show you how to work with clients well. Even if you’re not a financial planner or a student learning about financial planning, you can take so much away from The Externship! 

The beauty of being a financial planner is that our learning is never done! While you may not need CFP Board experience hours, there is a lot of valuable information, and you get the ability to learn from other experts — and take a peek inside their financial planning practices. In fact, we have a number of firm owners and veteran advisors who take The Externship to learn from other professionals and stay on the cutting edge of this profession. 

Yes! There are so many great reasons to become a financial planner and The Externship will highlight different career paths available to you (more than you’ll learn about in school!). Many career-changing Externs have said this program helped clarify their direction in their career as well as bring context to what they learn in their university’s program.

Over 40% of our 2025 Externs were career changers! Whether you love numbers, want to help people live their best lives, or find fulfillment in working on teams, financial planning may be your ideal career path. The Externship showcases just what a planner’s work looks like, and how you can make an impact with this career!

You’ll get the opportunity to see how financial planning is applied in diverse financial planning firms, and with diverse clientele, so you can really decide if this career is for you.

Yes! We love seeing familiar faces! In fact, almost a quarter of our Externs every year are “return Externs” who’ve completed the program in previous years. Plus, you can get RE-certified for eMoney, as so much has changed with their platform! 

Best of all, you can earn 500 CFP Board Standard Pathway hours for every Externship you complete. 

No. While FPA is still a partner, The Externship is now no longer offered under their programming. It’s part of Amplified Planning and run fully by Hannah Moore, CFP^®, who has run and hosted it since 2020!

Yes! You’ll be eligible to receive experience hours again this year, even if you’ve attend one or more summers in the past.

The great news is that completing The Externship now earns you 500 CFP Board Standard Pathway experience hours!

NOTE: Experience hours will only apply to those who finish The Externship in full and earn their certificate. 

Unfortunately, the experience hours provided in this program do not qualify for CFP Board Apprenticeship Pathway requirement. The Apprenticeship Pathway requires that your experience be delivered by personally engaging with individual clients.

There will not be any opportunities to earn CE in the Externship course. If you need CE hours to renew your CFP^® certification, check out our CORE and CORE+ subscriptions!

Thanks to our partners, we are able to offer a limited number of full scholarships to The Externship. Scholarships will be announced closer to the opening of 2026 Externship registration.