Ameriprise says a new program launched in May to provide certification for financial advisors serving veterans and military families has gained momentum as brokers increasingly cater to customer segments across the board. beyond just levels of wealth.
The Minneapolis-based financial services company has partnered with Dalton Education, a provider of CFP educational materials, to create what it calls a “first-to-market” Certified Military Financial Advisor Certificate online course. The title will remain exclusively open to Ameriprise financial advisors until June 2024, according to a Press release.
Advisors can expect to spend around 40-50 hours on the certificate. Topics include navigating benefits programs for different military divisions, retirement, life and disability insurance, death and survivor benefits, education benefits, divorce, VA home loan program, compensation, estate planning, healthcare providers and more.
An Ameriprise spokesperson said in an email that to date, 46 advisors have been certified since launch and 78 more are in the process.
Ameriprise
“We’re getting more interest every week,” Mike Greene, senior vice president of Financial Advice and Advisor Business Group at Ameriprise Financial Services, said in an interview. “We just finished some advisor training conferences, and this was one of the most popular topics that advisors were talking about.”
Last week, ahead of Veterans Day weekend, Raymond James also announced the launch a new group of employees, the Veteran Financial Advisors Network, to help advisors who are veterans of the business support each other and promote careers as advisors to other veterans.
Although wealth management firms have long grouped their clients based on their amount of investable assets, employers competing for talent believe offerings like these will appeal to advisers looking to develop areas of niche expertise.
Greene said Ameriprise referenced this certification, among other opportunities, when recruiting talent and demonstrating its value proposition. “So many people want to focus on this area, and it’s a valuable part of our offering,” he said of the company’s resources to advise military families.
“We want to help advisors grow their business, and we want to help them do business in the best way possible,” he said.
Sean Pearson, one of the first advisors to receive Ameriprise certification, said in an interview that in-depth training like this helps him stand out to clients by better understanding their needs — rather than just being a banal adviser. use general market news to try to attract customers.
“Every financial adviser in the industry is going to listen to a post-election, ‘how has that affected the markets this week?’ As a financial advisor and financial planner, I believe it’s important that we become at least as much of an expert on our clients as we are on markets, politics and everything else,” Pearson said.
Ameriprise
Pearson himself is also currently serving as major in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, he said. He specializes in helping families affiliated with the National Guard and Reserve. However, as someone who has not had active duty experience, there are programs that some of his clients need help with that he has no personal experience navigating. .
“That’s what the Certified Military Financial Advisor program was for me, this opportunity to gain expertise in some of the areas that I hadn’t known,” Pearson said. Although most of its military clients have the same basic financial education and planning needs as civilians, “the difference is that there’s an extra layer of information that you really need to understand to be in the army. There is value in working with someone who is an expert in this.”
Greene said Ameriprise has about 10,000 advisers across the country, and many live and work in military communities. Ameriprise has its own network of veteran employees called VETNET, and the company has been named a military-friendly employer by organizations such as military recruiting marketing firm VIQTORY, so it’s already known for attracting talent from these communities. Counselors may be veterans themselves or have military families among their clients.
“They’re really interested in that, so on their own, they’ve had to do their homework and be smart about those kinds of benefits” in the past, he said. A few years ago, to provide a resource for these counselors, Ameriprise created a manual to guide them in counseling military families. The certificate is an extension of that effort, Greene said.
Greene is a veteran himself, having served on active duty until he was 30, he said. When his family members began experiencing health issues likely related to their military service, they were uninformed and unprepared to navigate the wide range of veteran benefits available to them.
“It’s really personal,” he said.
A investigation earlier this year showed that among career military personnel, including officers and senior NCOs, financial literacy has declined across the board, underscoring the need for community planning services.
“There are different benefits available for active duty members, for the guard, for the reserve, and it can be dizzying for the average person just trying to live their life,” Greene said.
When a health issue arises, he said, “a lot of times the plan they had in mind is really turned upside down. And if we have access to resources, where we can say, ‘hey, we put a plan in place for that, let’s talk about the benefits you have, they’re in a totally different situation.”