Financial Counselors

Who is an Accredited Financial Counselor?

An Accredited Financial Counselor is:
- A financial counselor who has certified skills to assist individuals and families in the process of financial decision making.
- A financial counselor who agrees to maintain the highest ethical standards as written in the AFC Code of Ethics.
- A financial counselor who maintains up-to-date knowledge in the fields of personal finance and financial counseling.

To become an Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC), candidates must:

- Have two years of admissible financial counseling experience to enroll:
– Offering one-on-one counseling or advising services for clients.
– Developing and conducting education and training for clients.
– Developing education and training programs for financial counselors.
– Education and training financial counselors.
– Serving as an education director for a financial counseling organization.
– Supervising financial counselors.

- Complete registration form and submit the form with payment ($50 non-refundable enrollment fee along with $400/course) to the AFCPE offices.
- Identify proctor at local community college, learning center and complete the exam. Candidates must earn a 70% on each course examination.
- Subscribe to the AFC Code of Ethics
- Submit three letters of reference attesting to professional competence and experience (one from supervisor, one from a fellow professional and one from a client).

The Abilities of an Accredited Financial Counselor:

Accredited Financial Counselors have certified skills to assist individuals and families in the complex process of financial decision making, including the ability to:

- Educate clients in sound financial principles.
- Assist clients in the process of overcoming their financial indebtedness.
- Help clients identify and modify ineffective money management behaviors.
- Guide clients in developing successful strategies for achieving their financial goals.
- Support clients as they work through their financial challenges and opportunities.
- Help clients develop new perspective on the dynamics of money in relation to family, friends and individual self-esteem.

For more information on accredited financial counselors, please visit Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE) website.

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How to go about choosing the right financial planning counselors?

Financial security is a goal everyone works toward. In this confusing and complicated world, sound financial education and advice can be a valuable benefit. Many employers see the financial-planning benefit as a long-term perk for employees who are nearing retirement age, but actually, it can be a lot more. Financial planning has benefits for employees of all ages and for the employer.

Employees who have participated in financial-planning seminars have said afterward that they felt more in control of their financial destiny. Employers have reported that providing financial-planning benefits has led to reductions in turnover, increases in employee loyalty and improvements in morale.

Employers tend to provide financial-planning benefits to employees nearing retirement. But studies show that financial-planning seminars actually may help younger employees more. Employees who are near retirement have fewer options and may actually be “out of luck and time,” if they haven’t already planned for retirement. The younger employees have many options open to them. If they begin planning now, their financial future can be brighter.

Employers need to remember, however, that financial planning for employees is a benefit and should be treated as such. It is a mistake to link financial planning with the office of the controller or chief financial officer. The human resource department can provide the proper support and administration.

With the explosion of available information, employees are more sophisticated than those of 20 to 30 years ago. They know they need to plan for their financial security but may not know exactly how to go about it. The HR department can provide guidance in areas such as:

- Social Security benefits.
- Employer-provided benefits available for the long-term (life insurance, pensions, 401(k) and disability insurance).
- Total income needed for retirement.
- Effects of taxes and inflation on retirement benefits.

If an employer decides to arrange financial-planning workshops, then it faces the problem of providing an appropriate level of instruction. People have differing levels of knowledge, and it’s a tough job for financial-planning counselors to take this into account when making a presentation to a large group.

The best way to find presenters for financial-planning workshops is by talking with human resource managers from organizations of comparable size. Find out if they have conducted similar programs. If so, then ask them to make recommendations. Also, be sure to ask what they would do differently if they held the same type of workshop again.

Consider devising a program that feature:

- An attorney for estate planning.
- A specialist in Social Security benefits.
- An administrator from a defined-contribution plan such as 401(k).
- A financial-planning consultant.

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Article giving information on free financial counselors.

Considering that most of us are in debt today, financial counselors are the need of the hour to guide us through the mess and help us become debt free. But where exactly do we look for help? I think we underestimate the help around us. Look around and you will find people who are in a bigger mess than you are and see how they are coping with their debt problem. Ask them how they are managing their finances … how they are handling the money etc.

Our parents are actually the best people to help us out of this situation. They are actually, our free financial counselors. After all, they gave birth to us, sent us to school and always gave a patient hearing to our problems. Though times have changed in terms of everything…from money making opportunities to debt burden levels, the basics remain the same. Only spend on things which are necessary and avoid the glitzy stuff that your neighbour bought and which you can’t afford.

Some people have rightly learned that if you can’t pay back a home loan within five years, then it is better that you stay in a rented house. A big house is a liability, not an asset. As the old saying goes, if you want to be rich, be stingy. Being in control of your spending helps in saving money and keeps you away from a debt trap.

The best part is, it’s never too late. Start using your credit card like a debit card. Sit down with your spouse and discuss the problem and chalk out a plan to become debt free now!

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At Financial Counselors of Virginia (FCVA), they provide financial planning and investment management services on a fee only basis. That means, they work solely for their clients and receive no compensation from anyone else. As a result, they eliminate the conflicts of interest arising from the sale of investments and other financial products. The benefit to you is advice and portfolio management that is designed for you and tailored to your best interests. They help you develop and accomplish your own dreams.

As your investment advisor and wealth manager, FCVA is acutely aware that every dollar not spent on sales charges, commissions or excessive management fees is a dollar earned for you, their client. They know the cost of investing matters!

As an Independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), FCVA and its Advisors are required by law to act in your best interests. Brokers have no such fiduciary responsibility.

Financial Counselors of Virginia (FCVA) is the oldest independently owned and continuously operated fee-only Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) in Hampton Roads and is headquartered in the center of Hampton Roads, America’s First Region. They are easily accessed from Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Hampton and Newport News. Their offices are 25 minutes from Smithfield and less than an hour’s drive from Williamsburg. They meet with their clients face-to-face, by telephone, via e-mail or through their unique client service web site. The choice is yours.

At FCVA, their clients are their focus. Through a unique medium, they provide a secure web site for each client where they can access information, post discussions, questions and answers, get copies of financial and personal documents and have access to the resources of FCVA whenever they want from wherever they are — 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world!

As they design your investment portfolio, they aim for performance that is both reasonable and probable, not fantastic but only possible. If you are looking for a fast trader to help you make overnight riches, please do yourself and them a favor and go somewhere else. However, if you are searching for an independent investment advisor who approaches the science as a prudent professional, one who takes the fiduciary oath seriously and places your interests first, you are in the right place. You deserve to work with an independent fee only professional wealth manager who looks after you first. At FCVA, they do not attempt to outperform some arbitrary benchmark as proof of their worth, rather they strive to:

make sure you have what you need — when you need it.

Every once in a while, a client tells them they have done something with another financial salesman that may not have been in their best interest. When they gently raise that question, the remark is, “I didn’t know you could help me with that.”

Financial Counselors of Virginia, Inc. has evolved into a more complete “wealth management” firm than the FCVA of old that was almost exclusively an investment management firm. While investment portfolio design and management is still of utmost importance, it is only part of the service they provide to and for you.

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Valuable information on Financial Counselors Inc Kansas City.

Financial Counselors, Inc. (FCI) is an investment advisory firm run by professionals who are committed to delivering superior investment management services. They have over 40 years of experience managing large cap, core equities and high quality fixed income portfolios and have current assets under management of $3.1 billion.

Your Benefit

At Financial Counselors they are committed to providing the clients with the best possible service, whether that is through superior client communications or through professional investment management specifically designed to meet your objectives. Through their many years in business, they have developed an investment style designed to meet a variety of client needs as they seek to provide consistent growth of principal through a high quality, proactive, and dynamic approach to asset allocation and investment management.

Mission Statement

Financial Counselors, Inc. is a professional investment management firm all of whose associates are dedicated to delivering superior investment management services that meet its clients’ objectives. FCI is dedicated to maintaining the highest degree of honesty, integrity and ethics in its commitment to clients, associates and community.

The firm is, and will be, positioned to meet the changing needs of its clients over the long term through hard work, dedication, experience, team work, innovation, flexibility, and a sense of humor.

History

FCI was originally founded in 1966 as an investment advisory firm by H. O. Peet, a Kansas City based regional brokerage firm. In 1978, FCI became a subsidiary of Kidder, Peabody & Co. Incorporated. In 1995, the investment management business was transferred to a new corporate subsidiary formed by Mitchell Hutchins Asset Management, Inc., a subsidiary of PaineWebber Incorporated. In June of 1999 the principals of the firm purchased the company from Mitchell Hutchins, returning ownership to Kansas City. Then in November 2000, FCI established a strategic relationship with Midwest Trust Company (MTC) where the investment professionals from Midwest Trust joined FCI and FCI became the investment sub-advisor for the MTC trust and advisory accounts. In addition, Midwest Trust provides back office capabilities (portfolio accounting and trading systems, IT services, etc.) for FCI.

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