Certified Financial Education Instructors (CFEI)®
The Credential Defining Financial Educator Excellence
The Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®) designation is recognized as the gold standard for professionals who teach personal finance with competence, confidence, and measurable impact. This rigorous certification program prepares educators to deliver instruction that goes far beyond simply teaching financial facts – it empowers them to inspire behavior change, build practical skills, and improve real-world outcomes for the people they serve.
Unlike programs that stop at knowledge transfer, the CFEI® framework integrates financial psychology, educational methodology, subject-matter expertise, program design, professional practice, and advocacy into a single, comprehensive training. Graduates are equipped not only to explain financial concepts, but also to connect with diverse learners, design engaging lessons, and guide individuals through meaningful financial transformation.
Working With a CFEI® Graduate
Partnering with a CFEI® graduate means working with a professional who has demonstrated both technical expertise and the human-centered skills needed to create meaningful financial outcomes. Graduates of this program have proven their ability to:
Deliver
Deliver financial education that meets rigorous standards of quality, equal to those applied in other core academic subjects.
Translate
Translate financial knowledge into practical action and sustainable behavior change for learners across all life stages.
Design, Implement, and Measure
Design, implement, and measure programs that produce real-world results such as increased savings, reduced debt, improved credit, and greater financial stability.
Represent
Represent the financial education profession with ethics, empathy, and professionalism – earning the trust of learners and communities.
Advocate
Advocate for financial literacy as a critical life skill and public priority, advancing systemic change in education and access.
CFEI Graduates and their Competencies
The CFEI® program is built around seven critical areas of mastery, ensuring that graduates can deliver financial education at the highest professional standard:
National Financial Educator Standards
An NFEC Certified Financial Education InstructorSM (CFEI®) meets rigorous national standards created specifically for financial educators. These standards are built on the Framework for Teaching Personal Finance, adapted from Charlotte Danielson’s widely respected model in collaboration with the Danielson Group.
The Framework is evidence-based, research-driven, and widely recognized by educators, policymakers, and academics. Adopted in more than 20 states, the model defines the skills and performance levels that distinguish effective instructors. The NFEC’s version applies these best practices directly to financial education, outlining 22 components demonstrated to improve learner outcomes, from higher test scores to measurable behavior change. These components set clear benchmarks for both professional excellence and continuous growth.
Aligned with InTASC standards and grounded in a constructivist view of teaching, the Framework ensures that CFEI® graduates are not only subject-matter experts, but also skilled educators who build trust and deliver instruction that leads to lasting impact.
Certification Body Details: NFEC
The National Financial Educators Council (NFEC) is an independent, IACET-accredited organization dedicated to elevating the quality and credibility of financial education worldwide. As a Certified B Corporation, the NFEC meets rigorous standards of accountability, transparency, and social impact – ensuring that every initiative aligns with its mission to improve financial wellness at scale.
The NFEC serves as a thought leader and industry standard-setter by:
Choosing an NFEC Certified graduate means affiliating with an organization that is not only committed to professional excellence, but also to creating systemic change in how financial education is delivered, measured, and valued.
Connect with Certified Financial Education Instructors℠
The NFEC maintains the Certified Financial Education Instructor℠ (CFEI®) designation as the gold standard in financial education instruction. To protect the integrity of this credential, we provide public tools to verify an instructor’s certification status, connect with qualified graduates for speaking engagements, and submit feedback on their performance. These resources ensure that every CFEI® represents the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, and instructional excellence.
The CFEI® Advantage
CFEI® instructors are distinguished by their ability to connect deeply with learners, guide them toward healthier financial decisions, and document meaningful results. Holding this credential signals that an educator is not only qualified but also committed to elevating financial literacy standards nationwide.
The CFEI® designation stands as a mark of excellence—preparing educators to transform knowledge into empowerment, and financial instability into long-term capability.
In today’s economy, people face many challenges to their futures. And the sad truth is that the average family is unprepared to meet those economic trials. Financial illiteracy reaches every corner of the country and the world. Lack of money knowledge causes all kinds of problems including college dropout, overwhelming debt, and foreclosures. The stress of dealing with money problems can be devastating. But now there’s an opportunity to make a difference. How? You can become a certified financial education instructor℠.
The National Financial Educators Council (NFEC) is an independent organization with a socially responsible philosophy. The NFEC has created the Certified Financial Education Instructor℠ program to expand their reach across the country and help people to become part of the solution to the financial issues so many people face. These Community Ambassadors are trained personal finance educators who have graduated from the NFEC’s comprehensive and stringent Certified Financial Education Instructor℠ (CFEI®) coursework. This certification program is approved by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards and places its graduates among the most highly qualified personal finance educators available.
Community Ambassadors help people solve their money problems by becoming financial education speakers in their communities. Through partnership with the NFEC, they raise awareness about the financial literacy movement and contribute to accomplishing the NFEC’s overarching goal: to create a world where people are informed to make qualified decisions that improve their lives, their loved ones’ lives, and the lives of people they reach.
CFEI® graduates meet the NFEC’s tough standards for financial education, and possess the knowledge, credibility, and self-assurance to teach money management for the utmost effect. As Community Ambassadors, they have a chance to give back to their communities and become highly respected community leaders. Through the CFEI® training they become qualified to teach multiple programs that are flexible to fit into a variety of schedules, including comprehensive workshops, classroom presentations, after-school programs, and parent outreach. Graduating the CFEI® provides an excellent opportunity to make a lasting difference in the world.
The industry needs more educators – become a Certified Financial Education Instructor℠.
What is a certified financial education instructor℠?
University of North Georgia (UNG) Students train to be CFEIs®
Ensure your instructor meets these standards:
Domain 1: Planning and Preparation
Instructional planning includes a deep understanding of content and pedagogy and an understanding and appreciation of the participants and what they bring to the educational encounter. But understanding the content is not sufficient; the content must be transformed through instructional design into sequences of activities and exercises that make it accessible to participants.
All elements of the instructional design – learning activities, materials, and strategies –must be appropriate to both the content and the participants, and aligned with larger instructional goals. In their content and process, assessment techniques must also reflect the instructional outcomes and should serve to document participant progress during and at the end of a teaching episode. Furthermore, in designing assessment strategies, Financial Education Instructors must consider their use for formative purposes, and how assessments can provide diagnostic opportunities for participants to demonstrate their level of understanding during the instructional sequence, while there is still time to make adjustments.
Domain 2: Classroom Environment
Financial Education Instructors create a learning environment through positive interpersonal interactions, efficient routines and procedures, clear and consistent standards of conduct, and a safe physical environment that supports the learning purposes. In addition, the environment encourages participants to take pride in their work and to assume responsibility for their learning. Participants respond to the warmth and caring of Financial Education Instructors, their high expectations for achievement, and their commitment to participants. Participants feel safe with these Financial Education Instructors and know that they can count on the Financial Education
Instructors to be fair and, when necessary, compassionate. Participants are also sensitive to the subtle messages they receive from Financial Education Instructors as to their capabilities. The components of Domain 2 are not associated with the learning of any particular content; instead, they set the stage for all learning. The Financial Education Instructor establishes a comfortable and respectful classroom environment, which cultivates a culture for learning and creates a safe place for risk-taking. The atmosphere is businesslike, with non-instructional routines and procedures handled efficiently; participant behavior is cooperative and non-disruptive; and the physical environment conducive to learning.
Domain 3: Instruction
Domain 3 contains the components that are at the essential heart of teaching – the actual engagement of participants in learning, through the vision of participants developing complex understanding and participating in a community of learners. Participants are engaged in meaningful work, which carries significance beyond the next test and is relevant to participants’ lives.
Financial Education Instructors who excel in Domain 3 have finely honed instructional skills. Their work in the classroom is fluid and flexible; they can shift easily from on approach to another when the situation demands it. They seamlessly incorporate ideas and concepts from other parts of the curriculum into their explanations and activities. Their questions probe participant thinking, and serve to extend understanding. They are attentive to different participants in the class, and the degree to which they are thoughtfully engaged; they carefully monitor participant understanding as they go (through well-designed questions or activities) and make minor mid-course corrections as needed. And above all, they promote the emergence of self-directed learners fully engaged in the work at hand.
Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities
The components in Domain 4 are associated with being a true professional Financial Education Instructor: they encompass the roles assumed outside of and in addition to those in the classroom with participants. Participants rarely observe these activities; parents and the larger community observe them only intermittently. But the activities are critical to preserving and enhancing the profession. Financial Education Instructors exercise some of them (for example, maintaining records and communicating with families) immediately upon entering the profession, since they are integral to their work with participants.
Domain 4 consists of a wide range of professional responsibilities that a Certified Financial Education Instructor℠ must meet. From self-reflection and professional growth, to participation in a professional community, to contributions made to the profession as a whole. The components also include interactions with the families of participants, contacts with the larger community and advocacy for participants. Domain 4 captures the essence of professionalism by Financial Education Instructors; Financial Education Instructors are, as a result of their skills in this domain, full members of the teaching profession, and committed to its enhancement.