What Does a Credit Counselor Do vs. What a Financial Counselor Does?
Many people today have interest in finding a qualified, caring professional to help them manage their money and reach their financial goals. So what does a credit counselor do, and how does that compare with a personal finance counselor? The National Financial Educators Council trains a nationwide team of financial counselors who have demonstrated competence, compliance with top standards, and passion for helping clients increase their financial well-being. These Certified Personal Financial Wellness Consultants know how to become a credit counselor and more; they are trained to comprehensively examine clients’ financial profiles and help them set strong goals, priorities, and actions to move toward higher levels of financial security.
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Clarifying What Does a Credit Counselor Do Across the Life Stages
What does a credit counselor do? They undertake the task of assisting those people who need to reduce a heavy debt load and/or build a better credit rating. A credit counselor or coach might review limited areas of a client’s financial situation, but mainly are concerned with those areas that have impact on credit and debt.
What does a NFEC Financial Coach have to offer in comparison with the credit counselor description? NFEC Financial Coaches have been carefully trained to give clients assistance across varied matters related to their personal finances. These NFEC counselors are capable to work with clients at every financial life stage and on all aspects of their situation, not just those pertaining to credit and debt. A NFEC Financial Coach is skilled at reassessing clients’ circumstances over time and helping them refashion their financial plans and goals accordingly.
Qualification Standards for NFEC Financial Coach Designation
The average financial consultant offers direct contact and the opportunity to talk about money. Consultants from the NFEC network – by comparison – offer a wide array of services, each of which helps people improve their financial situations. Through systematic research, we gathered data from Google using the search terms ‘financial counseling’ and ‘financial coaching’ – 137 webpages appeared in the top 50 results pages. Out of those, 26 listed easy-to-find package and price data. Looking and the financial consultants salary and packages offered, we learned that direct consultant contact was the top average offering, followed by educational resources, personal financial planning, and re-reporting/re-planning. See below for a summary of NFEC deliverables.
The Average Credit Counselor Description
The average credit counselor or debt coach provides clients with talk. By contrast, NFEC Financial Coaches provide a broad selection of services spanning all facets of people’s finances. Using a methodical research process, we collected data from Google using the keyword ‘financial counseling.’ In the top 50 pages of results, 137 webpages showed that keyword; and 26 of those had price and package data easily found on the site. We found that the number one offering was direct contact with the counselor; second was educational materials. Only a select few offered personal finance plans, and just 2 gave re-reporting or re-planning.
What Does a Credit Counselor Do? What Does a NFEC Financial Coach Do? Phase 1
Maryann, who wanted to start her own financial counseling practice, recently asked, “What does a credit counselor do, and what does a NFEC Financial Coach do?” She learned that NFEC Financial Coaches conduct financial counseling in three phases. Phase 1 involves understanding and diagnosis. The NFEC Financial Coach reviews the client’s full financial profile – from banking, to credit/debt, to assets/liabilities, to income, to insurance – using a variety of financial documents. Maryann learned that an NFEC counselor would do much more than help her cope with debt. The NFEC Financial Coach clarifies a client’s financial goals, lifestyle desires, and sentiments and then presents him or her with a unique, custom personal finance plan.
What Does a Credit Counselor Do? What Does a NFEC Financial Coach Do? Phase 2
What Does a Credit Counselor Do? What Does a NFEC Financial Coach Do? Phase 3
Maryann’s final answer to “what does a credit counselor do” occurred at phase three, where the NFEC Financial Coach had helped clients meet their most pressing needs and set plans to achieve their long-term objectives. Then the counselor makes a transition into the support and maintenance stage. NFEC Financial Coaches offer guidance and resources when clients need a bit of assistance, but the clients have become quite capable to make decisions on their own.
Connecting Clients with Industry Expertise
Finally, Maryann’s research taught her that a NFEC Financial Coach had proprietary access to a network of financial industry experts in various categories – specialists who could give clients support with niche expertise. For example, if a client is struggling to select from among an array of retirement plan options, the NFEC has an expert in that category who can step in to help. And this expert team is 100% independent; they never try to market or sell products to clients.
