Building a Financial Education Team – Tour & Case Studies
Creating your own financial literacy programming is a big undertaking that can make a lasting difference in the lives of those you reach. The NFEC supports organizations to develop and deploy financial education programming by supplying them with the training, resources, and expertise they need to ensure that their programs have maximum impact.
Building your own program requires convening a team of experts in financial education. Developing your own package can be beneficial if you have major customization needs.
Design & Development Support
The NFEC has designed campaigns ranging from small classroom programs to nationwide efforts that serve over half a million people. Our team of experienced professionals will guide you through the development process, ensuring that your campaign is in alignment with your educational, philanthropical, and organizational objectives at every step.
Training Your Team of Financial Educators
The NFEC’s focus is on maximizing training time and efficiency during the professional development of your staff / volunteers. Programs can be customized to match your time, budget, and desired outcomes.
If you’re looking to build a qualified team of educators, we offer several options that can be conducted via live in-person training or through our eLearning platform.
Customized Training Options
Placement-based Training for Your Team
Performance evaluations and assessments enable us to determine your staff’s unique skill development needs. Financial educator training is developed to meet their needs, and learning barometers are established to measure their progress.
Need-based Customization for Your Team
After meeting and gathering data from your leadership team, the NFEC develops programming based on your needs. Common customizations are centered around subject-based, end-user-based, and time-based needs, while balancing those needs with your outcome goals.
Full Financial Educator Training
Comprehensive Training
For those seeking highly qualified financial education instructors who are proficient across a broad range of financial education topics, the full Certified Financial Education Instructor training is recommended (30 Professional Development Hours, 3 Continuing Education Units).
Team Training Tour & Sharable Overview
Equipping Your Team of Financial Educators
During the development process, our team helps you match the learning outcomes of your program with our inventory of over 400 hours of financial education assets. For those organizations with unique lesson needs, our curriculum design team will create custom resources for you.
Live Presentation Resources: In-Person or Webinars
Live presentation materials are engaging and meet core educational standards. Materials are available for all ages – kids through adults.
Technology-based Learning: eLearning & Mobile Platforms
Leveraging best practices in eLearning combined with vivid design creates a unique learning experience where participants build their financial skill sets.
One-on-one Consultations & Accountability Resources
Resources for personalized lessons that provide the option to be customized for the individual learner.
Post-Programming Resources
Post-programming provides an opportunity to acknowledge participants and provide them with ongoing financial education. Data gathering and reporting is also a critical element of post-programming you should consider.
Reporting
The NFEC can supply your team with detailed reports, or templates and resources to present your data.
Ongoing Education
The NFEC provides resources that help your participants feel supported down their financial education path after the program concludes.
Learner Certification & Certificates
Build affinity toward your program by recognizing people who participate in the campaign and highlighting the program’s success.
Programming Case Studies
LiSA Initiative
LiSA Literacy Project
The NFEC’s work on LiSA Literacy Project centered around developing private-labeled curriculum developed, marketing support, targeted studies (women & money), Certification for their instructors, initiative design, support staff training and promotions.
Transamerica
Vince Shorb with Stig O. Nybo presenting the NFEC’s Financial Education Leadership Award to Deb Ruben.
Transamerica’s Financial Educators Academy
Transamerica had a vision to help educate a variety of beneficiaries (clients, personnel, prospective clients) and support their team of advisors. The NFEC was tasked with building a comprehensive financial education program that included development of a certification training program for financial professionals, customized curriculum, specialized testing and surveys, marketing promotions, and key note speaking for the program milestone events.
The overall program arms financial professionals with tools they need to improve financial literacy in whole communities. To access those resources, Transamerica requires each person to become “Certified Financial Education Instructors,” with a goal to deliver real results and have real impact on those they reach.
Read more about how this program started in 2013 with demand- and supply-side surveys of Transamerica stakeholders and resulted in the development of Transamerica Financial Educators Academy, training of hundreds of advisors and empowering people in communities with financial knowledge.
Transamerica Case Study
Transamerica reached out to the NFEC after hearing many financial professionals say that they wanted an opportunity to teach basic financial literacy but lacked the time, resources, or training. The NFEC was tasked with building a comprehensive financial education program. Their final solution included a certification training program, customized curriculum, specialized testing and surveys, marketing promotions, and lining up a high-profile speaker for the program launch event.
To guide program development, the NFEC conducted demand- and supply- side surveys of Transamerica management and advisors. These data were used to tailor the program to best meet the needs of all parties involved while encouraging cross-department collaboration.
The NFEC created a custom Certification Financial Education Instructor program specifically designed for financial professionals. The in-studio, fully-scripted production featured leading financial education instructors and financial professionals teaching subject matter aligned with the Framework for Teaching Personal Finance – the only existing set of national standards for financial educators. The NFEC rounded out the certification program by adding a custom video introduction and uploading it for access via an online college education platform.
While the certified instructor program was in production, the NFEC customized curriculum to meet Transamerica’s specific needs. Our team worked with their compliance department and project leaders to ensure that the final version satisfied their needs. An extremely flexible, ready-to-use library of teaching tools was developed, including private-labeled PowerPoint® presentations, instructor’s guide and script, student guides, pre- and post-session assessments, homework activities, and certificates. These downloadable materials can be customized with each financial advisor’s logo and printed through the print-on-demand portal.
Promotional and co-promotional tools were developed by the NFEC and the Transamerica Financial Educators Academy. The resulting email and advertising templates help advisors promote events in their community. Customized graduation certificates also were created to commemorate attendees’ accomplishments and encourage participants to continue discussing the financial education topics with their families at home.
The campaign was launched on National Financial Educators Day, founded by the NFEC to honor financial educators. NFEC’s CEO, Vince Shorb, gave the keynote address at the Transamerica’s Retirement Readiness Summit, especially recognizing the exceptional efforts of three individuals who promoted financial wellness over the past year: Deb Rubin, Tom Hoffman, and Jania Stout. Customized awards were distributed by the NFEC and all attendees expressed excitement about the launch of the Transamerica Financial Educators Academy (TFEA).
The overall program arms financial professionals with the training and tools they need to improve financial literacy in whole communities. The program offers financial professionals the opportunity to become “Certified Financial Education Instructors,” with a goal to deliver real results and have real impact on customers and prospects.
The NFEC commends Transamerica’s leadership. They have launched one of the most comprehensive financial education initiatives in the financial industry today. Their dedication to serving communities across the country will have a lasting positive impact on the people and communities this campaign reaches.
Pictured: NFEC’s CEO, Vince Shorb with Stig O. Nybo (President, Transamerica Retirement Solutions – Pension Sales and Distribution) presenting the NFEC’s Financial Education Leadership Award to Deb Ruben (Transamerica Retirement Solutions Senior Vice President, TPA and RIA Distribution). Congratulations to Deb for a well-deserved award.
Initial Partnership Announcement – Financial Educators Day 2014
The National Financial Educators Council celebrated Financial Educators Day at Transamerica’s Retirement Readiness Summit in Miami on April 25, 2014. At the event, NFEC CEO Vince Shorb spoke to the financial professionals in attendance about advocacy for financial wellness. The live event concluded with recognition of the exceptional efforts of three individuals who made special efforts to promote financial wellness over the past year.
Financial Educators Day, which takes place the last Friday of April, is set aside to recognize innovative leaders working to improve the financial capabilities of people in their communities. This year Deb Rubin, Tom Hoffman, and Jania Stout were honored during Transamerica’s second annual Retirement Readiness Summit. Deb Rubin, senior vice president of TPA and specialist advisor distribution for Transamerica Retirement Solutions, received the NFEC’s 2014 Financial Education Leadership Award for her dedication to improving retirement outcomes for American workers.
Arizona State University
Arizona State University
The NFEC created a campus-wide peer financial literacy initiative for MidFirst Bank to deploy across Arizona State University. This program is going into its fifth year and was designed to widen the reach of financial literacy programming and improve the financial capabilities of its students.
The NFEC developed the core campus-wide campaign, including the materials they needed to host and promote their financial literacy programming. At the center of the campaign were their student-led program facilitators.
The program was peer-led, so Arizona State University students were trained and certified to deliver the customized workshops. Both live in-person and virtual training were provided to students who participated in the Certified Financial Education Instructor training course.
Arizona Attorney General’s Office
Arizona Attorney General’s Office
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office sought to expand its role of serving military and veteran families by hosting financial literacy and consumer protection initiatives. They contacted the NFEC to train their team of financial education instructors, provide resources, and support them through the grant application and funding process.
The Attorney General’s Office sought to serve a broad population, ranging from people experiencing financial problems to people who were financially sound. Beneficiaries of the training were referred through veterans’ court mandates, interested veterans and active duty personnel, first responders and their family members. The training team had experience teaching these various groups, but many expressed concern about their confidence to teach personal finance.
One of the AG Office’s top goals was to address those concerns and ensure that their team of instructors was capable and qualified to teach financial education subjects. They sought an instructor training course that would helped the educators gain a better understanding of each group they serve, engage with each participant in a meaningful way, and encourage positive behavior molding.