Here you go, everything you'll ever need to know about the CFP exam:
http://www.cfp.net/become/
With risk of being politically incorrect, I'll give you my honest opinion. The CFP designation is much easier to obtain than the CPA, CMA or CFA, but that is not to say it isn't well respected.
The CPA (once you have passed the exam and have met the education and expereince requirements) is actually license to practice public accounting and thus is a professional designation in every sense of the word, much like the PE for engineers, passing the bar exam for lawyers, or the boards for doctors. The exam content is broad and detailed and the pass rates are quite low, typically less than 20% on a national level.
The CMA is somewhat similar to the CPA in terms of difficulty level, but is not a license to practice in any way, and thus the standards are more subject to being changed from time to time, or even being inconsistent. The CMA exam is certainly well developed and now in a fairly mature stage. Depending on your academic background and experience, it may be as challenging or even more challenging to pass than the CPA, although the pass rates tend to hover in the 40% range and they draw from essentially the same pool of candidates (or at least a very similar pool).
Of course the CPA and CMA are both accounting exams (although certainly, they both touch on other areas of business, particularly the CMA). So my advice (having developed and taught a full service CPA reivew course here in Cayman for a number of years now) is that if your'e not particularly interested in accounting and auditing (as you've stated) then don't even bother to waste your time getting started with this journey. It's a long and hard journey to pass either of these exams (for most of us mere mortals anyway) and it will result in nothing but frustration, heartache, and outright mental pain if you're not totally into it. It's not something you can just dabble in.
The CFA exam has three successive levels that you need to pass, one year at a time, in order to get your charter. Although it's not a liscence to practice in the investment profession in the same way that the CPA is in the accounting/auditing profession, it is probably more widely recognized as a minimum entry level requirement in the investment field (for analyst jobs with the big firms) than say, the CMA is for working as a management accountant in industry. In other words, the CFA designation is the clear market leading qualification to have in the investement field. There are several other qualifications that investment professionals can pursue, but the CFA is the way to go if you're thinking about a long-term career in the investments field.
The CFA is a very rigorous exam, especially levels two and three! The pass rates vary quite a bit from year to year and level to level, and they don't seem to have settled into a consistent pattern like the CPA and CMA exams have. I've seen pass rates as low as 22% and as high as 81% for the CFA depending on which year and which level. The average seems to be between 40% to 60% for individual levels, but it's extremely hard to predict. The odd thing is, you might feel like you're failed, but still pass. Whereas with the CPA, if you think you failed, you failed! So there is always hope with the CFA and the key is to keep working and doing the best you can with every minute alotted. Those who wallk out of this exam early are absolute fools, IMO.
Although the CFP is also something worthwhile for investment professionals, it doesn't compete directly with the CFA in the sense that it is a much less technically oriented and rigorous exam, and is not a three level exam like the CFA. The CFP is for financial planners as opposed to financial analysts (to state the obvious) and as such has a more practical, hands on, orientation. Much of the exam has to do with case scenarios where you effectively are put in the position of a financial planner, and you need to identify areas of concern, questions to raise with the simulated client(s), and develop some recommendations that demonstrate your knowledge of various investment options, including life insurance, and all sorts of other things.
The CFP is the most "reachable" goal for someone who does not have an extensive academic background and thus is the one that lends itself best to a self-study approach. I'm told that there are some excellent materials available as well as prep courses. It's an excellent credential to have and is probably more flexible than any of the others in terms of what you might do with it once you have it in hand. There are a lot of creative CFP's out there who've really done well for themselves in life without necessarily having to spend years and years in college before getting on the success path. I'd recommend it most strongly for the entreprenurial types who are real self starters and go-getters!
Just for disclosure, I'm a CPA, CMA and CFA, but not a CFP. No doubt, my personal biases creep into this, but I've tried to present a fair and objective view. It might not be the same as that held by others. Although the CFP does hold some appeal to me, nearly 100% of the content from that exam (except the insurance stuff) is incorporated in one way or another in the CFA curriculum, so going back to do the CFP now would be mostly rehash. That, and I prefer to hang out with my headphones these days!
