FPA Partners with Psychology of Financial Planning Specialist Certificate Program to Support FPA Members

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Oct 03, 2022, 09:30 ET

DENVER, Oct. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With increased recognition of psychology's impact on financial behavior, there is a need for today's financial planning professionals to understand better how they can best serve their clients. In response, the Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) announced today a new partnership to offer members access to the Psychology of Financial Planning Specialist Badge™.

The Psychology of Financial Planning Specialist Badge Program is an on-demand program for financial planners with over 7 hours of video instruction and exercises. Developed by Dr. Brad Klontz, Psy.D., CFP®, and Dr. Charles Chaffin, co-authors with Dr. Ted Klontz of the recently released book Psychology of Financial Planning: The Practitioner's Guide to Money and Behavior, the program includes 9 CFP® CE credits for those who complete the program.

"We are thrilled to have this opportunity to work with Drs. Klontz and Chaffin to bring their expertise to our members through this truly unique learning program," says Patrick D. Mahoney, FPA chief executive officer. "Financial psychology is a critical area that needs to be explored by today's financial planning practitioners. This program will position our members to serve the unique needs of their clients better and provide them a deeper appreciation of how their clients think about finances and what they can do to help them make better financial decisions."

The program focuses on how financial planners can build deeper relationships with clients through tools and techniques that build better communication, cultural competence, goal-setting, and responding to client crisis events. The program's modules cover:

Client Values & Goals: The Planner's Role in Facilitating Financial Success — Identify the key factors that motivate a client's financial decision-making.
Understanding Your Client's Background — Focuses on how a client's past experiences around money can impact their financial beliefs and behaviors, including the impact of financial trauma on a client's relationship with money.
Understanding Your Client's Money Beliefs — Outlines the main categories of money beliefs and how they impact financial behaviors and outcomes.
Understanding Your Client's Financial Behaviors — Focuses on applying financial psychology to help explain, interpret, and evaluate financial behaviors.
Multicultural Competence in Financial Planning — Outlines the impact of race, culture, gender, and sexual orientation on the client and planner's financial experiences, money beliefs, and financial behaviors.
Dealing with Client Money Conflicts — Focuses on the four common sources of money conflict in clients' lives and strategies the advisor can use to address money conflicts in couples and families.
Six Steps to Help a Client Navigate a Crisis Event — Identifies the types and characteristics of client crisis events frequently seen in financial planning.
Behavioral Finance for Financial Planners — Identifies common heuristics and biases and how they can impact client financial decision-making and well-being.
Client Learning Styles and Risk Tolerance — Provides a comprehensive overview of various client learning styles and how financial planners can incorporate them into their practice.
Principles of Effective Communication — Focuses on key verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that can effectively build a relationship of trust and credibility with clients.
Counseling in Financial Planning Practice — Provides counseling techniques that planners can use with financial planning clients.
Getting the Client to Take Action — Focuses on the six stages of the change process, how a financial planner can identify each stage in a client, and most importantly, how to react and respond to help the client take action.
Implementing Financial Psychology into Practice — Focuses on the value that the psychology of financial planning brings to clients and planners and asks the financial planner to identify elements of their financial psychology and how their background, beliefs, and cultural identity impact the client-planner relationship.

"As a longtime member of the Financial Planning Association, I could not be happier that FPA is our first announced partner in bringing the Psychology of Financial Planning Specialist badge to the profession," says Dr. Brad Klontz, co-instructor.

Upon completion of the program, financial planners will receive the Psychology of Financial Planning Specialist Badge, which they can display on their websites and social media platforms. The financial planners will also be able to identify client biases, beliefs, behaviors, and other psychological factors that impact the client's financial goals and the client-planner relationship. They will also be able to apply various tools and techniques to help increase client acquisition, retention, and the effectiveness of financial planning and identify their own money beliefs and biases that can impact their client relationships.

"With firms large and small scrambling to educate their planners on all of the factors that impact the client-planner relationship, we saw a need to develop a comprehensive program for the profession that helps planners learn more about the client's financial psychology," says Dr. Charles Chaffin, co-instructor.

FPA will host an Impact Session webinar with Drs. Klontz and Chaffin on October 24 at 2:00 p.m. ET to further explore the new program. FPA members can register for the session on the FPA website. From there, members can learn about a model that will help financial planners understand their client's financial psychology and additional details on the on-demand program, which is available to FPA members at a discounted rate of $495.

About the Financial Planning Association

The Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) is the leading membership organization and trade association for Certified Financial Planner^TM professionals and those engaged in the financial planning process. FPA is the CFP® professional's partner in planning by helping them realize their vision of professional fulfillment through practice support, learning, advocacy, and networking. Learn more about FPA at financialplanningassociation.org and on Twitter at twitter.com/fpassociation.

About the Psychology of Financial Planning programs

Visit www.PsychologyOfFinancialPlanning.com to learn about the multiple program offerings for practitioners and firms, including the Specialist program as well as Psychology of Financial Planning Community and custom programs for firms of all sizes.

SOURCE Financial Planning Association