FAQ
Q: What does it take to become a Certified Financial CoachTM?
A: This special training program for coaches consists of three phases;
Q: What specifically will I be doing in each of the phases?
A: Curriculum and the length of each phase of the Certified Financial Coach training varies depending on your past experience. Our guide will give you this informaiton and help you clearly see what you need to do for each.
Coursework is virtual for 5 of the 6 modules. Module 3 is on site in Denver Colorado in a 3 day venue held in September of each year.
CHOICES FOR FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS##: The Financial professional is encouraged to move to the CFC-R and CFC-Pro track after becoming a Certified Financial Coach in the ICF Standards Division.
## Our goal in the CFC-R and CFC-Pro tracks is to assist you in developing the confidence and skills to in coaching by first obtaining CFC-I certification Virtual Learning session are then available for the advanced licensing for financial professionals.
Your distance learning activities that include coaching, reading, practices and facilitated conversations designed to support you in generating a more powerful and healthy relationship to money and wealth both for yourself and your clients.
Q: I'm already a coach or have coach training. Why would I want this certification?
A: We find that many coaches are very uncomfortable (and often silent) in discussing money issues with their clients. We believe that they are doing a disservice to their clients. We all know that what we believe about money impacts all of our choices in life and that money is one of the great sources of stress in our society. If you want to enhance the service you provide to your clients you need to increase your competence to help them generate a healthy relationship to money and wealth. In this program you will learn how to do that. You will also reveal and work with your own barriers and limitations to experiencing greater wealth. By signing up for the Track 1 Program through WEALTH STRONG, you not only receive a powerful learning and coaching around your own personal finances, you receive coach training hours to use for your ICF credential or continuing education requirements.
Q: Who teaches this program?
A: Through an agreement with the Certified Financial Coach Board of Governors, WEALTH STRONG International's subsidiary, Certified Financial Coach Services is licensed to run the Certified Financial Coach training program. WEALTH STRONG is committed to creating a coaching professional who is competent to work with others in improving their relationship to money, wealth and finance and to address much of the suffering that comes from our current worldviews and misunderstandings about what money is.
Q: When, where and how much?
A: The coursework and cost of the certification program is determined by your prior training and experience and your goals for the program:
Experienced Coach wanting Certified Financial Coach licensing
Financial Professional wishing to become a Certified Financial Coach
No prior experience in either field wishing to learn to become a Certified Financila Coach
CONTINUING EDUCATION;
You may wish to enter the training as a person working for continuing education credit. The cost on the per-module basis is higher -- ask a WEALTH STRONG staff member for details
Q: What is the structure of the three day Conference and how would my experience differ from other programs held for the public?
Our three day conference is for training individuals interested in learning the skills of a Certified Financial Coach. This is different from a Financial WealthCAMP a Certified Financial Coach can hold in their community.
A: Let's begin with the public Financial WealthCAMP. As a Certified Financial Coach, you will be able to take coursework that will allow you to teach this program in your community. With this program, you will be able to help people
-Clarify what they want out of life and, using strengths, taking new steps in managing resources so they can make dreams a reality.
-Learn new perspectives about how money works from both a transactional and cultural view and learn to manage its impact on choices they make
-See how long their financial resources will last based upon current habits of financial management, then they learn how to optimize (through a proprietary artificial intelligence model) what they can do differently to extend those resources.
-Take new steps to make a difference in their relationship to money and wealth through the support of individualized and group learning and coaching.
The three day program -- MODULE 3 of the training - is defined in more detail in the courseguide. Email the program REGISTRAR at cfc-registrar@wealthstrong.com for more information.
Q: What do I need to do to become certified?
A: You must complete all the assignments of this training program and attend the three day conference. Upon completion of the program, you will submit two recorded financial coaching sessions that will be assessed by the Certified Financial Coach Board of Governors - Certification Panel. You will be assessed against the International Coach Federation’s (ICF) core coaching competencies at the ACC level, in addition to the financial coaching competencies developed by WEALTH STRONG.
Q: Why is this field emerging now?
A: The recognition that both these areas are intrinsically tied together is why the field of financial coaching has emerged. In 2004, professionals in both the coaching and financial fields joined together to develop a licensing program for the Certified Financial Coach. The curriculum and tools they developed have resulted in an evolutionary school of thought and programs which help people find clarity and provide a reality check for their financial future.
People need help in their relationship to money and wealth. They need to better understand the underlying concerns that drive them, consciously and unconsciously, when it comes to their relationship with money. They need to work with a coaching professional who can help them with their emotional issues relating to wealth and money, one who is familiar with the financial marketplace and landscape who can help them bridge the gap between what they can do and what they will do with their resources.
The growing need for the Certified Financial Coach professionals is evidenced by the following statistics and information:
- Money has been identified as the #1 area of stress in a person’s life. The Health Insurance Institute states that stress related illnesses consume the greatest number of dollars in health insurance claims.
- The 2002 Census showed that the median amount of savings put away for retirement for the average 65 year old is only $59,000. It has become much worse with the economic downturn of 2008-2009.
- Financial incompatibility is the number one reason for divorce in this country.
- 78 Million Americans identified as baby boomers are entering the retirement stage of their life; few of them feel they are adequately prepared.
- A new term “date of ruin” is becoming a buzz word regarding an individual's date in their lifetime when they will run out of money and all financial resources. It is expected that a large number of baby boomers will be faced with a “date of ruin” within their lifetime.
- The expectation that government programs will take care of the baby boomer generation is becoming less likely because of our national debt and because of shifting economic conditions in the world.
- The largest demographic group in this country who will be affected by a poor relationship with money are baby boomer women.
- In a recent survey of professional women making over $100,000 a year, over 50% stated that they feared running out of money during their lifetime and ending up as a bag lady.
- In the year 2035, it is projected that anyone who lives until that year will reach the age of 100 in their lifetime.
- The monetary system itself is built on scarcity and this hidden, but powerful, fact impacts everyone’s relationship to money and wealth.
As a Certified Financial Coach you will not offer financial advice to anyone (unless you are also a trained and licensed financial professional). Rather, you will become affiliated with financial professionals who can help your clients when they need to transact financial instruments. Certified Financial Coaches will partner with financial professionals so they jointly provide a full-service and holistic approach to serving the financial needs of their clients. Those holding the Certified Financial Coach license with the special CFC-R or CFC-Pro designation have additional ethical training and disclosure requirements and are asked to provide a statement of their coaching contract to the Certified Financial Coach Board of Governors for review).
Q: Who can I talk to if I have more questions?
A: or call 303-904-3177 for direct help.Click here to have the Director of Participant Enrollment contact you
The Certified Financial Coach training is a blockbuster program! For me, to be enabled to transcend my own fears, and to be equipped to aid others, will provide me with depth for my Executive Coaching practice. To say that this is needed for my clientele would be an understatement! I am grateful to be the recipient of such rigorous and disciplined training that is so needed. One has only to hear the voices lamenting the finances of the "middle class" to know that we can help and guide our clients in an impartial way to achieving more stability and abundance. What a wonderful training for me! ~ Dick McCollum, Westerly, RI |