Just What Is a “Senior Specialist”?
Title makes investors think their financial professional has specific expertise
A lot of people are calling themselves “senior specialists” these days, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). It’s reporting “a significant increase” in what it calls “designations"—credentials that imply expertise at providing services to investors 55 years and older.
People may call themselves senior specialists “to create a false level of comfort among seniors by implying a certain level of training on issues important to the elderly,” according to NASAA. “But the training they receive is often nothing more than marketing and selling techniques targeting the elderly. These sales people and the alphabet soup of letters after their names can be confusing, and in some cases, may even be deceptive to seniors.”
Many of these “specialists” are out there targeting senior investors through seminars—such as the “free lunch” seminars—where the person reviews seniors’ assets, including securities portfolios, and then often recommends they liquidate securities positions and use the proceeds to purchase indexed or variable annuities products or other investments the specialist offers. These recommendations may be viewed as providing investment advice for compensation, so the senior specialist who isn’t registered with that particular state would be subject to enforcement action by the state.
The education, experience, and other requirements for receiving and maintaining a “senior specialist” designation vary greatly. NASAA says that while there are organizations whose members, after working in a designated field for several years, must complete rigorous programs of study and pass extensive examinations to earn a particular designation, there are other organizations that require little or no training.
You can find out a little more about that set of initials following someone’s name by going to “Understanding Professional Designations” on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) Web site. This interesting page provides the education and experience requirements for many of the designations that professionals use, and you can find out whether the granting organization requires continuing education (some do, some don’t), offers a public disciplinary or investor complaint process, or provides a way to check the status of a financial professional.
For example, becoming a Certified Senior Consultant (CSC) requires 25 hours of a self-study course through the Institute of Business & Finance. There is no investor complaint process or public disciplinary process, and you can’t check the professional’s status online.
A Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) attends a live or Web class for four days, or does a self-study class, through the Society of Certified Senior Advisors. There are avenues to register complaints, and the professional’s status can be checked online.
A Senior Registered Financial Planner (SRFP) is required to have 60 hours of education in estate and retirement planning, and 30 hours in investment products through the Registered Financial Planners Institute. Complaints as well as researching the professional’s status can be done at the institute’s site.
A Chartered Senior Financial Planner (CSFP) takes a three-day course through the Association of Chartered Senior Financial Planners (ACSFP), and no continuing education is required. But the site’s home page states: “The use of the word ‘Senior’ in ACSFP or in the CSFP-Chartered Senior Financial Planner designation does not imply, nor should it imply, that our members only work with or target Senior Citizens. Rather, it implies that our members have been trained in more Advanced Retirement Planning and Asset Protection strategies. Thus ‘Senior’ refers to a level of experience, not the age of a target client base. All ACSFP Members have the training to assist people of all ages with Advanced Retirement Planning and Asset Protection strategies.”
If all this isn’t confusing enough, there are many more titles, 10 of them that include the word retirement—and most overseen by different organizations—such as Certified Specialist in Retirement Planning (CSRP), Certified Retirement Services Professional (CRSP), and Accredited Retirement Plan Consultant (ARPC), and there’s even a Certified Financial Gerontologist (CFG).
States are starting to enact regulations that prohibit financial professionals from using misleading senior and retiree professional designations. In addition, FINRA’s Rule of Conduct 2210 prohibits registered brokerage firms and brokers “from referencing nonexistent or self-conferred degrees or designations or referencing legitimate degrees or designations in a misleading manner.” Also, FINRA warns, “Financial Analyst, Financial Adviser (Advisor), Financial Consultant, Financial Planner, Investment Consultant or Wealth Manager are generic terms or job titles, and may be used by investment professionals who may not hold any specific designation.”
