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.

Extensive debt coaching program Procedures

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

  • The Counseling Process: Understand, Report, Diagnose
  • The Counseling Process: Guide, Educate
  • The Counseling Process: Support, Maintain
  • Psychology & Behavioral Finance Facets of Counseling
  • Financial & Debt Counseling Strategies
  • Personal Finance – Content Knowledge
  • Instructional Methods for Optimal Client Understanding
  • Counseling Standards for Professional Practice

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

Augmentation of debt coaching course Materials

Course workbooks, manuals

Planning for debt coaching program Outcomes

Parchment certification award

Suggestions for debt coaching program Studies

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.

Organization for debt coaching program Benefits

Counseling Software/Reporting System

Breakdown of debt counselor program Policies

Counseling Processes/Communications

Appropriate Use of debt counselor program Components

Forms and Practice Resources

Proficiency of debt coaching course Proficiencies

Business Planning and Training Materials

Breakdown of debt coaching program Conclusions

Promotional, Marketing, and Client Leads

Composition of debt coaching program Use Cases

Packages & Pricing

FAQ Section

We have 3 pricing options. You can view all options at the bottom of the page – click here.
The training is virtual. All you need is an Internet connection and phone. You can choose from among these 3 course schedule options:

  • Option 1: Self-directed. Take the training at your own pace as lessons are released. You will have access to recorded instructor-led webinar trainings too.
  • Option 2: Instructor-led. Join our 14-week live webinar training. Requires an investment of 10 to 15 hours per week to keep pace. You will have access to the full self-directed training as well.
  • Option 3: Hybrid. A combination of self-directed and instructor-led.
The total training time is 180 hours and the fastest you can complete the training is in 14 weeks. Some people may be able to test out of certain areas of the course to reduce total training time.
Yes. Our goal is to produce highly-capable coaches. If you know some of the material already, you can test out of that portion.
There are no education requirements or prior experience requirements. However, we do require all coaches to pass a criminal background check.
Yes. We provide you with an award letter recognizing the 180-hour total training time. Check with the organization to which you want to apply CEUs to get prior approval.
Get the latest schedule – click here.
Although the course is self-paced, everyone gets meetings with a personal counselor and assignments are graded. To ensure that all enrollees have timely access to their counselors, we limit enrollment.