NAVA At 10 Years: Upping The VA Education Ante
By
Boston, Mass.
National Association for Variable Annuities, Reston, Va., is upping its educational ante for VAs.
At the organization's 10th anniversary here, NAVA President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Mackey announced that NAVA has decided to offer continuing education courses for registered representatives.
Eventually, the courses will lead to a designation through a planned "NAVA University."
The variable product trade group made the decision to move in this direction earlier this year.
It reflects NAVA's continuing commitment to increasing education about variable products, especially VAs, he indicated. (See chart.) Such education is a key mission of NAVA, he said. "We take it seriously."
The first step to forming the NAVA University, he said, is to develop the online CE courses for registered reps. Those courses are now in development, he said, and the first ones should be ready for students by early next year.
The courses are being designed to qualify for CE credits from state insurance departments, Mackey said.
Merry Mosbacher, NAVA's outgoing chair and principal of Edward Jones in St. Louis, noted in a report distributed to members, that the host for NAVA's online education site is Reg.Ed.com.
Unltimately, she said, NAVA expects to create a "comprehensive, broad-based curriculum" on VAs. This will be offered under the banner of the new NAVA University.
Those who successfully complete the program will receive a designation, Mosbacher said.
In the past year, NAVA also took on another education initiative, said Mackey. This is to develop courses that will be included in a new certification program offered by National Association of Securities Dealers, in conjunction with the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
The program will lead to a Certified Regulatory and Compliance Professionals designation, Mosbacher said.
