What the CTEP™ designation does for your career
The Chartered Trust and Estate Planner™ expands your practice to include estate planning, inheritance planning and asset-repositioning services — giving you a high-value specialism that very few Indian professionals hold, recognised by AAFM® across 151+ countries.
What the CTEP™ designation delivers for your practice
Estate planning is not just another module in a financial planning curriculum — it is a complete professional specialism. These are the concrete advantages CTEP™ brings to your career.
Own a high-value specialism
CTEP™ is India's only dedicated estate-planning credential. Earning it places you in a category of specialists that India's HNI and UHNI families are actively seeking — with very little competition.
Expand your range of services
Add estate planning, succession planning, will consultation, trust structuring and inheritance planning to your existing practice — without starting over. CTEP™ is built for professionals who already have clients.
Become the lead professional
Estate planning coordinates the lawyer, the CA, the banker and the insurer. The CTEP™ professional holds all those threads together — the advisor clients consult first, before they sign anything.
Build deeper, stickier client relationships
Estate work spans families and generations. A client who trusts you with their succession plan stays for life — and brings their children. CTEP™ advice creates the deepest professional relationships in finance.
Command retainer-based advisory fees
Estate planning is advice, not products. HNI families pay for expertise and judgement — CTEP™ positions you for the retainer and consulting model, not commission-based distribution.
Globally recognised charter
CTEP™ is awarded under AAFM®/GAFM international standards — recognised in 151+ countries. Whether your clients are resident Indian families or those with cross-border interests, your credential travels with you.
Specific capabilities the CTEP™ builds
These are the concrete advisory skills CTEP™ graduates develop — sourced directly from the curriculum and the learning outcomes of the designation program.
Identify personal law aspects affecting estate planning
Understand how Hindu, Muslim and other personal laws govern succession for your clients — and where those laws create risk or opportunity in an estate plan.
Explain will-making processes and probate
Guide clients through the drafting and execution of a valid will, the probate process and the role of an executor — including what a will can and cannot do.
Describe trust structures in India
Advise on private trusts, family trusts, discretionary trusts, testamentary trusts, MWP Act trusts and charitable trusts — and explain the tax treatment and administration of each.
Use technical legal language in private-client matters
Communicate accurately with lawyers, notaries and bankers — and explain complex legal concepts to clients in plain language — using the vocabulary of succession and estate planning.
Explain Muslim estate planning and Wakfs
Understand the specific rules of Muslim personal law, including fixed-share heirs, the one-third bequest limit and the role of Wakfs in estate planning.
Outline insurance trusts and legacy planning
Structure insurance policies within estate plans — including MWP Act trusts that place life-insurance proceeds beyond the reach of creditors and other claimants.
Comprehend financial power of attorney applications
Advise clients on incapacity planning — including powers of attorney, living wills and guardianship considerations for themselves and for minor or vulnerable heirs.
Plan NRI and cross-border estates
Advise clients with Indian assets and NRI heirs — covering FEMA repatriation, RBI approval requirements, and the succession laws of Singapore, the UK, the US and the UAE as they interact with Indian estates.
The same designation — a different unlock for every professional
CTEP™ meets you where you are and extends what you can offer. Here is what it does specifically for each profession.
Wealth managers and private bankers
Move from portfolio management to family-wealth ownership. Estate planning retains UHNW families across generations — and gives you the conversation that most competitors cannot lead.
Chartered accountants
You already see the full balance sheet. CTEP™ adds succession — so you serve HNI families end-to-end and avoid the HUF and titling traps that surface after death.
MFDs and distributors
A nominee is not an owner. Clients need someone who plans succession, not just nominations. CTEP™ makes you the trusted advisor, not just the agent — and opens relationship-based advisory income.
Insurance advisors
MWP trusts, estate liquidity analysis and beneficiary structuring make you the planner who protects the whole family — not just places the premium. CTEP™ raises you above the product sale.
Lawyers
Most wills miss testamentary trusts, business succession and FEMA. CTEP™ makes you the lawyer that family offices and HNI families keep on retainer — not just draft a will for.
RIAs and financial planners
Estate planning is the final, missing stage of a financial plan. CTEP™ completes your offering and makes your plan survive the client — winning the whole family as clients for the long term.
Awarded under international standards — recognised worldwide
The CTEP™ designation is awarded by the American Academy of Financial Management (AAFM®, USA) and delivered in India by AAFM® India under licence. The AAFM® is a global standards body with a track record spanning three decades.
AAFM® holds ISO 9001 quality management certification, ISO 29990 learning services certification, TUV certification and is recognised by the US Department of Labor. It has been named Best Finance Certification Body by CMO Asia.
The certificate you receive on earning CTEP™ is issued under AAFM®/GAFM international standards — the same framework that governs AAFM® certifications in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, the UAE and 148 other countries. It carries the weight of a globally recognised professional body.
Awarding body branding shown for identification purposes only.
Explore every step of the CTEP™ journey
The Chartered Trust & Estate Planner pathway is a connected set of pages — start anywhere, each links back here.
Become the trusted name in trust & estate planning
Give a course advisor 15 minutes and walk away with a clear plan, fee options and your next batch date — no pressure, no jargon.
Benefits of the CTEP™ — questions answered
After completing CTEP™ you will be equipped to provide estate planning consultations covering will drafting and review, succession planning, private and family trust structures, business succession, NRI and cross-border estate planning, and estate liquidity analysis — across resident and non-resident clients and families.
No. CTEP™ is an advisory designation, not a legal qualification or licence. It builds deep knowledge of the legal frameworks governing estate planning so you can advise clients, coordinate with legal professionals and structure comprehensive estate plans — but you do not practise law as a result of holding CTEP™.
Most financial professionals serve clients within a single domain — tax, investments, insurance or law. CTEP™ trains you to see and connect all those domains through the lens of estate planning. That integrated, specialist expertise is rare in India and allows you to serve HNI and UHNI clients in ways that no single-domain professional can.
CTEP™ is awarded under AAFM®/GAFM global standards, recognised in 151+ countries. AAFM® India holds ISO 9001, ISO 29990 and TUV certification. The designation is accepted at leading private banks, wealth management firms and family offices. Confirm recognition with specific employers directly.
You may register for CTEP™ after completing 12th standard (10+2). A graduation degree in any stream is required for the certification to be formally awarded. Confirm current eligibility requirements with a counsellor.
Most candidates complete the program in 3 to 6 months. The course includes approximately 65 on-demand video lessons across 6 units with one year of access, followed by a 2-hour online MCQ examination with a 50% pass mark and no negative marking.
Start your CTEP™ journey today
Request a call back and our counsellors will share the full syllabus, fees, batch options and the next start date — and help you choose the right path.