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February 27, 2025
Recent research shows that as financial professionals accumulate designations, they may also gain clients and revenue for their practice.
In partnership with The College, FUSE Research Network surveyed 2,700 financial professionals from across the industry to produce quantitative and qualitative proof of how professionals benefit from The College’s designation and certification programs.
This 2024 Designation Outcomes Study highlights how areas of foundational and specialized knowledge can help financial professionals grow in the business, carve out a niche in their field, and thrive by offering clients services specifically catered to their particular needs. These specializations, such as retirement, philanthropy, and special needs planning can help advisors improve their career outlook and offer more services to their clients.
Diving Into Designation Outcomes
The 2024 Designation Outcomes Study begins by showcasing the benefits College designations offer to financial professionals even on a foundational level. Designations such as the Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®), Wealth Management Certified Professional® (WMCP®), and Financial Services Certified Professional® (FSCP®) provide financial professionals with a strong starting point for covering complex needs and help them better serve clients.
The correlation between a financial professional’s ability to serve complex needs and higher earnings is highlighted in a whitepaper by Cerulli Associates, “Financial Planning: Fueling Client and Business Growth.” According to their research, as financial planners increase the complexity of the services they offer, there is a noted increase in average client size and average assets under management per practice. This positive correlation suggests that there is a notable benefit to financial professionals seeking multiple designations, including specialized designations beyond any foundational designations they may pursue throughout their careers.
Advisors With Multiple Designations
Clients seeking to tackle complex issues such as retirement planning may look to specialized professionals who’ve gone beyond this foundational knowledge by pursuing additional education through designations like the Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®), Chartered Special Needs Consultant® (ChSNC®), or Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®). A specialized expert holding one such designation will be capable of helping clients solve more complicated issues pertaining to their areas of expertise.
In addition, according to Designation Outcomes Study findings, when a financial professional holding one designation adds a second designation, they may see a further 9% higher growth in earnings, 5% higher growth in production, and 12% higher growth in assets under management compared to their peers with a single credential, based on respondents’ reported growth over the past three years.
How Do Specializations Impact Advisors?
The data goes on to provide further proof of the impact of designations on the success of advisors by validating the efforts of those who seek an education in a specialized field.
According to the study based on self-reported growth over the past three years, RICP® designees demonstrate:
- 26% higher growth in earnings
- 45% higher growth in number of clients
- 71% increase in client retention when compared to professionals with no designations2
These numbers emerge due to the expertise of the College alumni committing themselves to mastering these specializations and better serving the needs of their clients. While most financial professionals may be able to navigate their clients through retirement planning on some basic level, RICP® designees will be able to help them with more challenging retirement tasks such as claiming Social Security, estate and legacy planning, solutions for employee retirement plan savings, and more.
Similar findings present themselves in the area of special needs planning. Of respondents who held the ChSNC® designation:
- 63% reported a significant or moderate increase in client satisfaction
- 56% reported a significant or moderate increase in client referral rate since earning their specialized designation2.
This data suggests that clients seeking special needs services, similar to those seeking retirement planning, value an expert who has specialized knowledge in the field. Working with professionals capable of preparing for the costs of long-term care for those with special needs through management of healthcare planning and Medicaid complexities is valuable — and clients are clearly pleased when dealing with an advisor who has put it in the work to meet their needs.
Not surprisingly, the CAP® boasts similar numbers in the field of philanthropic planning. CAP® designees show:
- 9% higher growth in earnings
- 35% higher growth in number of clients
- 44% increase in client retention2
Similar to the other two designations, the CAP® acts as proof that a financial professional possesses skills found in few other places across the industry, and clients clearly value their specific skill sets.
Why Specialize?
Taking all these data points into consideration, a trend emerges indicating that clients value specialized knowledge from their financial professionals. Each designation corresponding to a specialized area of planning sees significantly improved relationships with clients, improved outcomes, and higher earnings.
For this reason, The College continues to equip financial professionals with specialized knowledge to help them reach greater heights and increase their potential value to clients. New specializations like the recent Tax Planning Certified Professional™ (TPCP™) designation demonstrate that The College is committed to providing advisors with specialized knowledge in their pursuit of lifelong learning.
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