How to Choose: 24 Different Designations for 401k Advisors?

Interested in earning a professional designation or certification to help you become a more competent 401k advisor?

You’ve got lots of choices—24 of them, to be exact—according to the just-released “2019 Retirement Plan Professional’s Designation & Certification Guide,” compiled by Sharon Pivirotto, owner of the 401kbestpractices.com blog.

The new and updated version marks the fourth edition of the guide, intended to help qualified plan sales and service professionals review and compare all the different retirement-focused designation and certification programs. The first edition was published back in 2007 with only 13 different programs listed, and was updated again in 2012 and 2015 before this year’s edition.

“With so many valuable programs available to choose from, this guide simplifies the process of identifying what’s out there and how each program compares on subject matter, costs, length of time to complete and a variety of other key points,” Pivirotto said.

Some notable statistics from the new guide:

• The average number of annual CE required is 10 hours a year.
• Excluding the DALBAR 3(38) Certification, the average annual designation or membership fee is $330 a year.
• The average program cost is $2,800, with the lowest being the 401(k) Practice Builder Certificate Program that comes in under $300 (also takes the shortest amount of time to complete) and the highest being the Certified Benefits Professional (CEBS) that comes in just over $12,000 (one of the most rigorous and longest timelines to complete).

With the new 2019 update, Pivirotto notes the number of 401k designation and certification programs has not changed although three programs that are no longer offered have been replaced by three new programs for advisors to consider, and one program has changed names. The 401(k) 3(38) Adviser Certification is now the DALBAR 3(38) Certification. The new additions to the guide are:

• Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA) (which Pivirotto says was inadvertently omitted from the 2015 version) from the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA)
• Nonqualified Plan Advisor Certificate Program (2018) by NAPA
• 401(k) Practice Builder Certificate Program (2013) by NAPA

The three programs that were removed in the 2019 guide are:

• Fee Disclosure Expert by DALBAR, Inc.
• Qualified Plan Financial Consultant (QPFC) designation by NAPA
• Global Financial Steward (GFS) by 3ethos (a review of the current curriculum finds it to be more general leadership-focused and less specific to the qualified plan market)

Interested persons can download a free edition of the Retirement Plan Professional’s Designation & Certification Guide here.