RICP Certification Questions

[TampaHound]

This may be the wrong forum for this question....but recently I received a email the other day from the American College of Financial services.

Normally I ignore these things, but for some reason I opened this one. It dealt with earning my RICP certificate.

I am currently only a lowly health/life insurance agent working in a call center. However I've a background in banking and am thinking about leaving my company for greener pastures someday.

My current employer will not pay for this course (and I don't blame them since this is outside the scope of what I currently due).

So in a nutshell:

1) Is it worth having on my resume for a later date? I want to get back into banking sometime in the future.

2) The cost is $2500 for the course. Is it worth the money to pursue?

3) Does this make sense? Or am I not thinking clearly and missing something fundamental?

Your feedback is welcome.

 

[DHK]

The RICP is for retirement planning professionals to construct retirement income plans that are tax sensitive and focus on longevity concerns.

In my opinion, there are three kinds of people that can really benefit from this:
1) Insurance only professionals selling life and annuities
2) Investment advisors selling life, annuities, AND securities
3) Reverse mortgage professionals

I have spoken with Don Graves who is one of the professors for the RICP program and I'm quite convinced it's a great program. I will pursue it at some point myself.

However, would it really benefit your "resume"? Well, RICP isn't as well-known as CFP or ChFC/CLU. Strangely enough, even though The American College Center for Retirement Income is funded by New York Life... NYL is strangely against any advice regarding someone's home equity use. I think whether it enhances your resume will depend solely on the employer you choose to interview and apply to work with.

In my opinion, based on various firms compliance concerns, the RICP is purely a skills and knowledge-based credential, and may not enhance your resume, your initials after your name, etc. Although the certificate will look nice on your wall!

 

[HealthGuy]

I completed the RICP about one year ago. I took the three courses over about 12 months...Its a tremendous amount of work - and in my opinion the three two hour timed tests are very challenging (and this is coming from someone - me - who used to hold my 6 and 63 licenses). I don't know how difficult the CFP or CLU is, but this designation is a biatch and should, in my opinion, be a highly regarded designation...I would recommend NOT doing it unless you will specifically enter the retirement income planning arena full time. The RICP wont make you successful, but will cost you a boatload of money and time.