UGA Financial Planning
Financial planning is one of the fastest growing professions with a high demand for professionals coming out of accredited programs. UGA offers a top-ranked program with a variety of degrees to fit any busy professional or student's schedule and budget. All our programs are CFP® Board registered and meet the CFP® exam education requirement. Your financial planner career starts here.
LEARN MORE GO TO PROGRAMSFinancial planning means job security
Financial Planning majors have a variety of career opportunities. Our students go to work for large brokerage firms, small boutique Registered Investment Advisor firms, government agencies, and non-profits, to name a few. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, financial planners earn a median salary of $87,850 per year with a bachelor's degree. The financial planning profession has a "much faster than average" growth compared to the national average, and it's forecasted that there will be 40,000 additional jobs added to the existing 263,000 in the next ten years. About 19,200 openings for personal financial advisors are projected each year, on average, over the decade
Highlights
Expert Faculty
Prolific authors and nationally recognized faculty
High Earning Major
One of UGA's Top Undergraduate Earning Majors
Class Options
Classes offered at UGA and online
Diversity
40% of our students are female compared to less than 20% in the profession
Degree Options
Multiple degree options related to financial planning are available and designed to best fit your needs
What makes UGA Financial Planning unique?
Two words: experiential learning. This gets you hands-on experience beyond the classroom through internships, service-learning, research, and travel study. This gives you the edge over competitors when you apply for a job or pursue graduate school. Below are experiential learning opportunities you'll get with UGA Financial Planning.
The Love and Money Center
You'll get real world experience at the Love and Money Center as a client-facing financial counselor. The Clinic has reached more than 1,500 individuals, couples, and families since 2011 through one-on-one services, and many others through its group workshops on topics like well-being and financial literacy.
UGA Money Dawgs
You will have the option to help lead the UGA Money Dawgs summer academy open to kids ages 11-14 where kids can come and learn about money, personal financial decision making, and investing. Students have fun learning while also discovering great financial planning careers.
UGA Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)
You can join VITA every spring to help others with their taxes. As a student you'll get valuable tax experience as you come face-to-face with clients and solve their tax situations. VITA has had over 600 student volunteers help over 7,000 households with their finances for over a decade.
Meet some of your teachers
Meet a few faculty below or view all faculty to get a taste of what your classes will be like.
Lance Palmer
Seeing students emerge as professionals--watching them merge technical and soft skills when working with clients at tax time--is something that I look forward to each year.
Mary Carlson
Students learn valuable information about their personal finances and then they are able to apply that knowledge to help others.
John Grable
Our students are of the highest caliber, which makes every day in class a fun and engaging experience.
Choose the program that fits you best
Undergraduate
The undergraduate program provides you with skills to enter the marketplace as a financial planner or financial counselor. You'll also have the opportunity to complete internships and experiential learning.
Double Dawgs
Double Dawgs gets you started on your master's level work while fulfilling requirements for your bachelor's degree. Students enrolled in the double dawgs program complete both degrees in five years.
Online Graduate Certificate
The Graduate Certificate in Behavioral Planning and Financial Therapy is a specialized set of courses that can be taken to complete the stand-alone academic certificate or applied to a graduate degree program at UGA.
On-Campus Master's
In the master's program, you'll complete a capstone course, internship, or research project to prepare you for your professional career in financial planning.
Online Master's
The online master's degree offers ultimate flexibility in both location and time. This degree can be completed while working full-time.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. gives you the highest level of research-based academic preparation. In our program you will have the opportunity to research and participate in experiential learning with world class faculty.
Have questions? Contact us.
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Mission and Vision
Our mission is to transform students into effective practitioners and scholars who foster inclusivity in behavioral financial planning and counseling by providing experiential learning opportunities in a collaborative and diverse environment from nationally recognized faculty.
Our vision is to be the leading program in transformational behavioral financial planning scholarship and development of highly sought-out, effective practitioners and researchers in a diverse world.