RMA Designation Program For RIAs Gets New Curriculum Director

Advisors who focus in their practices on retirement planning have been able to get a Retirement Management Analyst designation since 2009 when the Retirement Income Industry Association introduced the program. And now, the RMA has a new curriculum director: Wade D. Pfau, Ph.D., CFA, according to Francois Gadenne, executive director and chairman of the RIIA.

Pfau, who holds a doctorate in economics from Princeton University, is currently associate professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. He is well known to advisors for his online newsletter and his blog, as well as his published research on pensions and retirement planning.

“We are thrilled to have a person with such depth of knowledge and experience as Wade become more involved in the rapidly developing retirement income curriculum surrounding the RMA designation,” says Gadenne. “As the only scientifically-based advanced education in this arena, the keen focus is on the quality and timeliness of the RMA curriculum as a way for financial professionals … to better serve the millions of Baby Boomers in retirement.”

The RMA program — information can be found on the RIIA website http://www.riia-usa.org/ — is a five-week course that can be taken online on a flexible schedule through Boston University’s Center for Professional Education or as a one-week intensive program at Texas Tech University.

Danielle Reed writes for Financial Planning.