New York Life Partners With The American College on Agent Curriculum

New York Life announced Monday that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with The American College of Financial Services to support the path to specialization for the company’s financial professionals.

The partnership includes a new curriculum featuring five modular development tracks, each designed to provide agents an opportunity to receive a comprehensive career roadmap and a path to specialization aligned with New York Life’s suite of product solutions, with the college providing the knowledge base for each track.

Following are the five tracks:

• The financial guidance path addresses foundational needs, including family protection, income protection and planning for retirement.
• The retirement planning path focuses on diagnosing and addressing needs around investing for retirement and creating income for retired clients.
• The wealth advisory path helps agents identify and address wealth accumulation strategies using a goals-based approach.
• The business solutions path focuses on addressing the specific needs of small-business owners.
• The estate planning module path offers strategies for optimally managing and passing on assets, while minimizing estate and other taxes.

The first two modules are already available; the other three will become available over the next year, according to the announcement.

Upon the completion of each track, New York Life financial professionals will have finished the coursework necessary to attain relevant designations from the college, and will earn specialist titles available only to graduates.

New York Life will cover 100% of the tuition for development track coursework at the college, and financial professionals can earn any of these professional designations through their education:

• Financial Services Certified Professional (FSCP)
• Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC)
• Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU)
• Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP)
• Wealth Management Certified Professional (WMCP)

The partnership builds on a longstanding relationship between New York Life and the college, which has been educating the industry’s financial professionals since 1927.

“By collaborating with the college, we have created a best-in-class, repeatable path that will lead our financial professionals to become credentialed specialists in the practice model of their choice, on a timeline that will equip them for success faster,” Mark Madgett, New York Life executive vice president and head of agency, said in a statement.

“In addition to bolstering our position as a leader in agent development, we believe this new curriculum will also benefit consumers by increasing access to more credentialed financial professionals with broader and deeper expertise to support their unique needs.”

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