Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) Update

On December 23^rd, I passed the third and final exam for a one-year long course to earn the Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) designation.

At about $2,000 (for the 3-course advanced curriculum), plus over two hundred hours of coursework/studying plus passing 3 two-hour exams, I have now earned the RICP® designation. Of course, I’ll have additional continuing education (CE) requirements for the rest of my career too in addition to my CFP® and insurance license CE requirements too. It is a big commitment, but one I am excited to make in order to better serve my existing and future clients for years to come.

I think the biggest takeaway that I personally gleaned from the course was adding Reverse Mortgages to the many of the retirement income plans that I design for my clients. Even though not all of my clients will ever use a reverse mortgage, I am convinced that for 80% of you, seriously looking at opening up a HECM line of credit would be an inexpensive, yet very wise move.

I’ll be writing more about how recent law changes and improving products are making this a vital “club” in your retirement “golf bag” in the weeks to come. My retirement income software added the ability to account for this “club” as well. 

Since its launch three years ago by the American College of Financial Services, the RICP® designation has become the must have designation for advisors specializing in securing their clients’ retirement income and all that involves. Since this particular area has become the bulk of my own financial practice over the last few years, it’s a natural extension of the Certified Financial Planner education that I completed in July 2000. 

I’ll be joining over 2,100 dedicated professionals who already hold the designation (many are CFP’s, ChFC’s, CLU’s and CPA’s as well) and who are improving the future of the retirement income services industry.

Happy New Year… Mark

PS – I will not be able to officially use the RICP® designation on business cards, email signatures, etc. until a standard background check is performed over the next couple of weeks. I’m told that everything should be in good order by the January 23^rd.