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FSCP®

Financial Services Certified Professional®

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Best For

Professionals seeking fundamentals to launch a financial services career.

Timing

<12 Months

Format

Study the curriculum with your fellow students through live virtual or in-person classes.

Hybrid

Tuition

 $625/course

Enroll Now Request Info
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Experience the FSCP® Program

Foundational Knowledge for Career Success

Join FSCP® Program Director Kirk Okumura, MSFS, ChFC®, RICP®, along with one of the program’s successful alums, Fatima Williams, FSCP®, for a video tour of the FSCP® Program.

Take a Tour
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Admissions Requirements

There are no prerequisite courses required to begin the FSCP® Program.

To meet the program’s requirements and receive the FSCP® designation, you must:
1. Successfully complete five courses (three core courses and two electives) and their final exams
2. Attend at least six of eight class sessions and obtain at least a 70% moderator’s grade (including classwork, project/quiz, and participation)
3. Score 70% or higher on the course’s final exam
4. Agree to comply with  The American College Code of Ethics and Procedures 

Participation in the annual Professional Recertification Program (PRP) is required to maintain the designation.

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Tuition & Scholarships

Program tuition is paid on a per-course basis. Tuition covers your course fees, final exam, and course materials, including:

  • Weekly live online or in-person class featuring experienced moderators
  • Virtual access to all course materials and assignments 
     

Individual course: $625 

Scholarship opportunities for active-duty military personnel, veterans, and spouses, African American financial professionals, women, and other qualifying groups are available. Discover scholarship opportunities

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What You'll Learn

The FSCP® Program offers a 360-degree curriculum for running a financial services practice, with an emphasis on product knowledge, prospecting and marketing, and business planning principles.

Your learning outcomes of launching your career in financial services include:

  • Fundamental financial services knowledge and skills 
  • Proven prospecting and marketing strategies to build new relationships
  • Practical experience uncovering client needs
  • Foundational business planning for a growing practice
  • Applicable knowledge on a wide range of financial products
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Course Delivery

Complete the seven-course curriculum at your own pace and customize it to your personal and professional interests through an active learning approach of Learn, Discuss, Do, and Reflect. Receive support from our course moderators and academic advising team, and collaborate with fellow classmates in real-time.

Our program features:

  • Expert moderators with years of industry experience
  • Up-to-date curriculum covering current trends and market realities, like social media, inflation, recession, and regulatory constraints 
  • Hybrid format with self-study, live weekly collaborative sessions, and independent project work, as well as options for in-person learning
  • Personalized course options that offer program flexibility tailored to your professional goals 
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Why Become an FSCP®?

93%

Of FSCP® designees say it was a worthwhile investment for their career development.1

55%

Increase in productivity was reported by professionals participating in the FSCP® Program.2

88%

Of FSCP® designees indicate an improved ability to meet client needs.1

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The FSCP® is Right For You If:

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You Want to Launch a New Career in Financial Services

Start Your Journey With The College

The FSCP® Program delivers a comprehensive curriculum in running a financial services practice, making it ideal for the new professional.

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You Want to Turbocharge Production and Career Growth

You Want to Increase Your Production and Earnings

Learn proven strategies to accelerate practice growth that can be applied to your business beginning day one.

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You Want Practical Skills for Real-World Application

Grow in knowledge and business skills

Our courses focus on multiline skills, business ethics, and meeting client needs – all areas of need for practice leaders.

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Inside the FSCP® Program

FP 99 Foundations of Financial Planning (REQUIRED)

Provides an overview of the major planning areas that financial professionals need to understand when serving clients.

Upon completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • List the most common financial needs and the financial products used to address them
  • Understand the big picture needed to effectively offer financial products and services that are consistent with clients’ overall financial situation and needs

FA 200 Techniques for Prospecting: Prospect or Perish (REQUIRED)

Teaches advisors industry-proven methods for successfully identifying, selecting, and approaching prospects for financial products and services.

Upon completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Identify procedures for creating prospect awareness
  • Target marketing concepts
  • Create prospect qualification and prioritization techniques
  • Overcome the psychological barriers to prospecting
  • Innovative approaches to setting income and activity goals
  • Consider strategic, tactical, and operational business planning

FA 203 Essentials for Meeting Client Needs (REQUIRED)

Guides professionals in examining the retirement planning process.

Upon completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Utilize fact-finding, methods of analyzing facts, retirement planning software, and sales tracking
  • Discuss the role of Social Security, Medicare, and tax policies in retirement planning
  • Understand various accumulation vehicles such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, life insurance, and annuities
  • Explain how retirement planning creates estate planning needs and addresses payout options, spousal benefits, and investment strategies.

FA 222 Essentials of Multiline Skills (ELECTIVE)

Provides multiline agents with strategies for helping clients obtain the various insurance and other financial products they need.

Upon completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Establish need
  • Gather and analyze information
  • Develop recommendations for products, including disability income insurance, life insurance, long-term care insurance, mutual funds, and annuities
  • Understand concepts of retirement and estate planning

FA 257 Essentials of Life Insurance Products (ELECTIVE)

Provides an overview of the two basic types of life insurance policies — term and whole life — as well as their many variations.

Upon completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Understand and identify all variations of life insurance products
  • Comprehend the personal, family, and business uses of life insurance products
  • Grasp policy illustrations, cost comparison methods, and income and estate taxation, 
  • Confront ethical issues facing the financial advisor

HS 300 Fundamentals of Financial Planning (ELECTIVE)

Provides an overview of the financial planning process.

Upon completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of and apply the steps of the financial planning process
  • Differentiate between various communication techniques used by advisors
  • Utilize the various financial planning approaches to provide actionable recommendations
  • Review personal financial statements and perform financial statement analysis
  • Build a foundation in quantitative techniques and basic economic concepts
  • Apply education planning and funding techniques to help clients achieve their goals
  • Review and apply the ethics of personal financial planning within various frameworks

This course is a bridge to the CFP® Certification Education and Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®) Programs.
 

HS 323 The Tools and Techniques of Life Insurance Planning (ELECTIVE)

Focuses on life insurance policies and annuities and their use in financial planning.

Upon completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Understand individual insurance products
  • Examine the organization, operations, and investments of insurance companies
  • Determine how to advise based on client need  
  • Have a better understanding of insurance reserves regulation
  • Integrate tools and strategies for annuities

This course is a bridge to the Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®) Program.
 

HS 353 Retirement Income Process, Strategies and Solutions (ELECTIVE)

Covers the process of creating an effective retirement income plan, including evaluating client goals, possible risks, and overall management strategies.

Upon completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Understand the steps in creating an effective retirement income plan
  • Identify retirement income needs, objectives, and goals by evaluating the client's current situation
  • Determine how to choose the appropriate retirement income strategy
  • Evaluate income tax, estate issues, retirement risks, and other threats to achieving client retirement goals
  • Integrate risk management tools, products, and strategies into client plans

This course is a bridge to the Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) Program.

WMCP 360 Introduction to Goal-Based Planning (ELECTIVE)

Introduces goal-based wealth management through a theoretical framework guided by the life-cycle model of optimal investing, borrowing, and protection.

Upon completion of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Describe the role of wealth over a lifetime
  • Observe investing within a life-cycle framework
  • Apply the value of a goals-based approach to investing
  • Analyze the impact of the economic environment on financial markets
  • Identify the CFP® financial planning process and evaluate strategies for managing effective client communication
  • Assess ethical practices and financial regulations
  • Implement a goal-based process for planning and managing client wealth

This course is a bridge to the Wealth Management Certified Professional® (WMCP®) Program.

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The FSCP®️ Program offers a deeper and wider knowledge of financial services foundations, taking you from product knowledge to competency; from an agent or advisor to a more equipped financial professional.

Fatima Williams, FSCP®

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The material was engaging enough that I didn’t just have to learn it–I wanted to learn more. It’s made me more knowledgeable in everything I do as a financial professional. The information I got from The College has been immensely helpful to my career.

Asa Rowlett, FSCP®

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I strongly recommend that new advisors complete this designation. It will help you see the path, plan the path, and execute the path of growing your practice through qualified referrals and introductions that align with the markets in which you want to work.

Brian Witherby, FSCP®, CLU®

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FSCP® Program: See Where We Stand

Save time with a quick view of how our FSCP® Program stacks up against other financial planning education programs.

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FSCP® Program: See Where We Stand

Save time with a quick view of how our FSCP® Program stacks up against other financial planning education programs.

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FSCP® Financial Services Certified Professional®

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LUTCF® Life Underwriter Training Council FellowSM

ADVANCED CURRICULUM

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HYBRID LEARNING FORMAT

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FINISH IN <12 MONTHS

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LIFELONG LEARNING STACKABILITY

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INSIGHTS OF NATIONALLY-RECOGNIZED THOUGHT LEADERS

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Design Your Own Curriculum

Create a custom learning path to meet your needs

With three required core courses and your choice of two electives from six options, you can build your own five-course FSCP® Program based on your knowledge and practice needs.

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Learn From the Leaders in Financial Services Practice Management

Kirk S. Okumura

MSFS, ChFC®, RICP®

Professor of Practice, FSCP® Program Director, Charles J. Zimmerman Chair in Life Insurance Education

Connect on LinkedIn Read Bio

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Kirk S. Okumura

MSFS, ChFC®, RICP®

Professor of Practice, FSCP® Program Director, Charles J. Zimmerman Chair in Life Insurance Education

Connect on LinkedIn Read Bio
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There’s Even More to Explore

Download the Brochure

Read more about the FSCP®

Access the Program Demo

Hear from a peer, a professor, and take a tour

View a Competitive Analysis

See where the FSCP® stands compared to other financial planning programs

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FSCP® Program FAQs

Effective February 1, 2024, the FSCP® Program has been updated and enhanced in the following ways:

Instead of requiring seven courses (five required and two electives), the designation has been streamlined to five courses (three required and two electives).

The program courses, both required and elective, better prepare designees to meet the needs of their clients. We are also now offering students the opportunity to take one or more electives that will serve as a bridge course into the CFP® Certification Education, Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®), Wealth Management Certified Professional® (WMCP®), Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®), and Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) Programs.

Effective April 1, 2024, the course format will be changing to a 100% online self-study, e-learning format to more easily accommodate students' work schedules. These changes will enable students to finish the program more quickly (an estimated 2 months sooner) and at a reduced cost. In the meantime, students may complete the program under the current model.

As of February 1, 2024, for the CFP® Certification Education Program as well as the ChFC®, WMCP®, and CLU® Programs, the first course in these programs  will also count in the FSCP® Program as one (1) program elective.

If you hold the LUTCF® awarded by The American College of Financial Services, you will need to take FP 99 (FSCP® Certification Course) to obtain the FSCP®. You may display both designations.

If you hold the LUTCF® awarded by The College for Financial Planning, you are eligible to receive two credits for the College for Financial Planning’s LUTCF® — one for FA 222 and the other as an elective. The transfer of credit agreement is only valid until December 31, 2023.

If you hold the LUTCF® awarded by The American College of Financial Services and the FSS designation, you may apply to receive the FSCP® designation but in doing so must agree to relinquish the FSS designation. The student may display the LUTCF® and the FSCP® designations only.

If you hold the FSS designation awarded by The American College of Financial Services, you will need to complete one additional elective course that you have not previously taken, as you have already satisfied the FSCP® certification requirement.

A waiver of course credit for certain courses will be granted to individuals who hold the FIC or FICF designation, provided the specific course(s) identified for the waiver of course credit were based on course revisions produced in April 2007 or later.

For the FIC Basic Introduction to Life Insurance, course credit will be granted for The American College’s FA 203(Essentials for Meeting Client Needs), provided that the student has completed the FIC designation. Credit for one of the FSCP® program electives will be granted if the student has passed the FICF Graduate I Estate Planning or FICF Graduate II Business Insurance Concepts courses. A confirmation letter from Kaplan is required to receive any of these credits.

For questions about waiver of credit towards the FSCP® designation, please contact us at 866-883-4498.

Moderating a course—either in-person (live-local) or virtual—is a great way to help newer financial professionals lay the foundation for a successful practice. In addition, some of the courses can help any financial professional explore new opportunities in the financial services industry, such as retirement planning, financial planning, estate planning, or business insurance. Continue the tradition of using FSCP® to leave your mark on the next generation of financial professionals!

The FSCP® moderator’s main role is to guide and facilitate the classroom discussion. A successful class is one in which students share ideas and experiences, and learn mostly from each other—not the moderator. Effective moderators skillfully:

  • Ask thought-provoking questions
  • Focus students on how they can apply what they learn to their practice
  • Keep students engaged by using different learning activities and strategies
  • Motivate students to complete readings, breakout questions, case studies, projects, and other learning activities
  • Challenge students to reflect on their experiences so they can repeat what works and change what doesn’t work
  • Explain concepts, when necessary


In addition to facilitating the classroom discussion, a moderator also will:

  • Prepare for class by customizing PowerPoint slides and corresponding notes
  • Keep track of student attendance
  • Grade projects
  • Evaluate students’ class participation


A moderator must meet the following requirements:

  • Have a minimum of five years in the financial services industry, preferably in a client-facing role as an agent, advisor, planner, or other
  • Have experience training and, ideally, facilitating discussions


Moderating FSCP® courses provides many benefits including the following:

  • Equip new financial professionals in your company or firm with the basic marketing, prospecting, selling, and planning skills needed to succeed in this industry
  • Take the final exam free of charge and earn designation credits (your course section must have at least five students, not including any moderators, and the offer only applies if you are the primary moderator)
  • Earn state Continuing Education (CE credits) if you take and pass the final exam (check your state for availability)
  • Hone your own skills

Moderators teaching courses that are open enrollment (not limited to financial professionals from a specific company or firm) will be compensated as follows:

  • 5-9 students: $800 per course (minimum of 5 students required to hold a course)
  • 10-14 students: $1,000 per course
  • 15-19 students: $1,500 per course
  • 20-25 students: $2,000 per course

Moderators can also choose between leading live, local classes or real-time online sessions from their home or office.

To apply to be a moderator, send your résumé or curriculum vitae to Kirk Okumura at Kirk.Okumura@TheAmericanCollege.edu. He will contact you for an interview.

If you are accepted as a moderator, you must attend Moderator Training, a three-hour training experience designed to teach you about the FSCP® active learning approach, the logistics of running a course, as well as skills and strategies for effectively facilitating an FSCP® course.

In addition, there will be a 30-minute training session for Brightspace, The American College’s learning management system.

Completed course set-up applications must be submitted 30 days prior to the start date of the class in order for students to be able to register and receive books in time for class. This is a secure form and all of your private information is protected.

For more information, see our FSCP® Course Set-Up Application page.

Final exams for all FSCP® courses are accessed through Brightspace during the 4-week exam window and must be taken in the presence of an eligible proctor that the student identifies. Students must satisfy the attendance requirements and have a moderator grade of at least 70% to be eligible to take the final exam. Guidelines for taking the exam and instructions for registering an exam proctor (identified by the student) can be found online in Brightspace. Students have four weeks from the last class to take their exams.

The American College of Financial Services requires every examination to be proctored by a disinterested third party who is not the moderator, not a relative, an immediate supervisor, nor an employee of the producer, and one that has no financial or personal interest in the outcome of the examination.

footnotes

1 The American College of Financial Services Designation Outcomes Study. 2017.

2 Enterprise results reported after one year of implementing the FSCP® Program.