Become a Certified Debt Counselor
Those with an urge to become a certified debt counselor may find what they need in the National Financial Educators Council’s Certified Personal Financial Wellness Consultant training and certification program. This training prepares people with the credibility, expert knowledge, and self-confidence to become capable financial counselors. Earning the NFEC Financial Coach credential proves your qualification to help individuals improve their personal finances, offer debt counseling services, and more.
Every client will have an individualized set of deep-rooted habits, relationships, and situations regarding money. Therefore, financial and debt counseling must be tailored to the unique audience. The NFEC Financial Coach training imparts the skills, abilities, and experience you need to accomplish positive outcomes with clients from all backgrounds and demographics.
Gain Competency through the NFEC Financial Coach Program
Graduates of the Certified Personal Financial Wellness Consultant training have proven ability to guide clients toward greater financial security, and have established systems to support that capability. They are qualified to conduct various activities that promote financial well-being among clients and communities.
Those interested in how to become a certified debt counselor can rest assured that the NFEC Financial Coach training is rigorous, practical, and experiential. The coursework meets high academic standards, while hands-on implementation practice helps enrollees perfect their skills in a controlled setting.
Becoming a Certified Personal Financial Wellness Consultant entails ~180 hours of training and practicum plus passing a stringent, proctored final exam. Enrollees may opt to test out of some training segments. Graduation confers an advanced degree of competency as an NFEC Certified Debt Counselor. The NFEC offers ongoing support post-graduation to help you position yourself as a recognized financial counselor.
The required competencies for earning certification are defined by the National Institutes of Health’s Competencies Proficiency Scale.
Topics the NFEC Financial Coach Course Covers
The training coursework for the NFEC Financial Coach designation was created to empower graduates with knowledge and systemization to achieve high impact. The subject matter incorporates financial knowledge, behavioral psychology, and counseling principles. Active learning and skills practice through implementation are built in.
NFEC Financial Coach Training Sections
Hands-on Counseling Practicum
Being an effective NFEC Certified Debt Counselor takes far more effort than just watching a bunch of Vimeo clips. You need to apply and practice the counseling techniques you’re learning.
Say you’re scheduled for an operation – do you want a doctor who learned how to do the surgery by watching a video? No. You want a doctor with proven success performing the same surgery in the past. Clients looking for a financial counselor or debt coach, by the same token, want a counselor whom they can trust, one with a good track record.
To become trustworthy, taking the NFEC Financial Coach training offers practical application activities so you learn how best to serve future clients. You also will build confidence, which in turn helps you create a positive impression.
The NFEC Financial Coach Four-tiered Practical Experience
NFEC Has Clear-cut Standards for NFEC Financial Coaches
Gaining the Certified Personal Financial Wellness Consultant label distinguishes graduates by ensuring that they have met the NFEC’s clear standards for counseling excellence. The NFEC’s proprietary standards revolve around the tenet that NFEC Financial Coaches have first fiduciary obligation to clients. Designing these benchmarks involved researching the regulations of multiple agencies, including FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority); FTC (Federal Trade Commission); SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission); and APA (American Psychological Association). There are a lot of debt assistance scams out there https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/Publications/DebtAssistanceScams.asp, and the NFEC Financial Coach certification helps ensure that clients are protected.
Financial counseling as an industry currently has no specified regulations. However, the NFEC took a proactive stance to create its own standards, thereby protecting counselors and clients. The benchmarks comprise an evidence-based framework for teaching; common language to guide effective communication; and measures to create awareness about the importance of choosing educators with top qualifications.
NFEC Financial Coach Training Endows Resources, Processes
Not only will you gain skills when you undertake to become a certified debt counselor through the NFEC Financial Coach program, but you’ll also gain entrée to a bank of resources that support successful counseling with clients. Furthermore, the training takes you through the counseling process incrementally and gives you practical experience applying the resources.
Through active learning to become a credit counselor, you’ll practice using resources aligned with each phase of the counseling process. The structural design of the NFEC Financial Coach training helps you become familiar with the process as you apply the skills you learn at each phase of the course.
The NFEC Certified Debt Counselor training is created specifically to ensure graduates’ success by providing the following resources:
More than 100 instructional videos
Weekly webinars (live), optional
Course workbooks, manuals
Parchment certification award
Beyond Training: Enrollees Get Counseling Resources
The NFEC is devoted to its graduates’ success and therefore give them all the resources they need for professional client service:
Client Financial Education Resources – online learning center, handouts, fillable PDF education resources, and more.
Counseling Software/Reporting System
Counseling Processes/Communications
Forms and Practice Resources
Business Planning and Training Materials
Promotional, Marketing, and Client Leads
Packages & Pricing