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The Retirement Income Industry Association® (RIIA®) has partnered with ����ֱ�� to launch a new online course for financial advisors who wish to pursue the organization’s Retirement Management Analyst® (RMA®) designation. The RMA program, which is taught only at accredited universities, is recognized as one of the most effective retirement planning designations in the financial community. It arms financial advisors with the knowledge and tools to provide the counseling and planning the public is seeking.

“This online course significantly increases the accessibility of the RMA, while maintaining the rigor and comprehensiveness of the curriculum we have developed over the last decade,” said Francois Gadenne, chairman, co-founder and executive director of RIIA. “We are delighted to build on our partnership with ����ֱ�� to provide this unique program and benefit from their exceptional distance learning expertise and technology.”       

The new program will offer the best of classroom-based teaching with the flexibility of distance learning. The first nine-week program starts on October 26 and will run through December 18. It will incorporate live and recorded expert presentations, discussion groups and interactive engagement around the RMA curriculum and case studies. The principal instructor will be Michael Lonier, RMA®, CEO, Lonier Financial Advisor LLC.

“This course is a great example of our ability to strategically leverage our distance learning expertise to meet the specific needs of financial planners, while also helping us support the need in our community for the type of client-focused advice RMAs provide,” said Patricia Maguire Meservey, ����ֱ��'s president.         

The new online Retirement Management course is for financial advisors with three or more years’ experience who are seeking to demonstrate to clients and business partners a mastery of the retirement planning advisory process and RIIA’s view across the silos approach to achieving clients’ goals.  

The course covers the RMA’s distinctive methods for:

• Implementing a four-part planning framework that starts with a client diagnostic kit that generates retirement allocations that are built using the RMA toolbox within the RMA practice management context,
• Comprehensive retirement planning based on the household balance sheet,
• Using the client's cash flow and balance sheet to determine the appropriate application of investment-based planning, goals-based planning, and product-based planning,
• Generating secure retirement income allocations protected by four broad risk-management techniques to build Upside, Floor, Longevity, and Reserves,
• Focusing on goals and successful outcomes, in addition to investment returns and performance, and,
• A cross-silo approach that embraces products across the investment, banking and insurance spectrum.

The completion of this and other programs will prepare advisors to take the RMA exams for the two RMA designation levels. For more information and to apply click here.