The American College announced Wednesday that it is launching a new designation for financial professionals, the Financial Services Certified Professional (FSCP). The new designation will replace the Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow (LUTCF) designation, which focused on insurance sales.
The new designation will focus on comprehensive planning instead of selling products, although The American College noted it does retain some sales advice. It enhances the LUTCF designation with more detailed content on topics like social media, health care and divorce planning.
"Financial services professionals need to master more skills and knowledge than ever before," Dr. Larry Barton, president and CEO of The American College, said in a statement. "We've designed FSCP to appeal to independent advisors, wealth managers, insurance specialists, registered reps and other financial professionals who want to be better at what they do."
Barton added that advisors who complete American College designations can increase their productivity by as much as 72%.
Advisors can begin working toward the FSCP designation in 2014. To obtain it, advisors must complete 10 elective educational units, an eight-week live webinar course and pass a supervised exam in a testing center. To maintain the designation, advisors must meet ethics-related CE requirements every two years.
Advisors can take courses in classrooms, live and asynchronous online classes, and in self-paced modules, according to The American College.
