Advest, the Hartford-based broker/dealer, has decided to encourage its financial advisors to add another designation to their credentials: that of Accredited Asset Management Specialist, or AAMS.
The AAMS certification, offered by the College for Financial Planning, has been around for about eight years, according to Randy Carbone, senior VP and director of asset management services at Advest,. The CFP designation itself has been around for 30.
While there are no current plans to make AAMS certification mandatory at Advest, Carbone says that the company's goal is for 100% of its financial advisors to have some professional designation, which, according to Carbone, could be AAMS, CFP, CFA, or CIMA. Forty-five advisors at Advest have completed the 12-module AAMS program so far, and all 45 passed the certification exam. "Nobody else has done that," says Carbone, crediting the company's way of mentoring advisors through the program and the intensive review session just before the exam.
