Axtella provides its financial professionals full access to an exclusive Membership Community, powered by APEG, committed to improving themselves, the financial planning industry and the lives of the clients they serve.
This customized Membership is fully funded as part of the Axtella tech stack and coordinates the robust resources of Axtella, the committed home office staff and the benefits of APEG's support of comprehensive financial planning. The community includes financial professionals as well as attorneys, accountants and other professionals who participate in the Comprehensive Financial Planning process.
Why APEG Membership?
Trends in the financial services industry indicate that wealth managers are increasing their revenue opportunities by offering dedicated professional financial planning as an additional service in their advisory suite of services.
True comprehensive financial planning moves past service models that traditionally focused on investments, insurance, and income planning, to also include estate and tax planning along with a myriad of other circumstantial planning.
Some professionals struggle with offering financial planning as a billable service because they attempt to introduce financial planning to clients as an afterthought to investment management. Successful professionals realize that a true financial planning relationship starts in their first meeting with a client.
In order to support this growing trend, APEG offers its Membership to financial professionals and financial firms that are interested in evolving their financial planning offerings to support their wealth management services.
The goal of the APEG Membership is to offer support through education, training and other planning resources that allow planners, regardless of their tenure in the industry, to grow professionally and enhance their competitive advantage.
APEG Membership accomplishes this goal by helping planners become better planners by sharing best practices to:
- Engage Like a Planner
- Think Like a Planner
- Have the Knowledge of a Planner
Furthermore, APEG supports the planner that "feels like an island" by hosting optional periodic Planner's Retreats for its Members and Subscribers to gather to Learn, Share and Grow together.
Whether you are an individual, an ensemble practice looking for a group Membership or a large financial institution looking at expanding your wealth management services, APEG can accommodate your learning and development needs.
Engage Like a Planner
Foundations of Financial Planning
This course was developed by post-graduate collegiate-level instructors that have also served as practitioners in their field of expertise. The course provides 24-hours of recorded content carefully walks a planner through foundational academic information covering the basics necessary to competently address the various segments found in a typical financial planning relationship including:
- An overview of the financial planning industry
- Estate Planning
- Income Tax Planning
- Risk Management Planning
- Employee Benefits, Social Security and Medicare Basics
- Retirement Income Planning
- Investment Planning
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College Planning
Your Pathway to a Planning Practice
This comprehensive course was developed by post-graduate collegiate-level instructors that have also served as practitioners in their field of expertise. The curriculum introduces the participant to APEG's proprietary G.O.A.L.S. Approach to Financial Planning. This approach allows a planner to demonstrate to a client that their services are well founded on true comprehensive financial planning. It is supported with licensed custom-branded supporting materials available in both print and online versions including:
- A First-Time client meeting brochure that introduces the G.O.A.L.S. approach to financial planning as part of the planner's value proposition.
- A comprehensive relationship-building initial client interview packet with over 5-hours of recorded training to help a planner not only gather the right information, but to demonstrate expertise throughout the interview process that the information is valuable to addressing the client's goals and objectives.
- A summary goal and objective document that quantifies the roadmap to the unique client-planner relationship.
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A tool to help the planner gather updates to their information during the annual review, consistent with the initial interview approach.
Think Like a Planner
Expert-Led Mastermind Round Table Study-Group Sessions
Some of the best advice doesn't come from textbooks, but from our peers. In order to be able to recognize planning opportunities and address them, APEG hosts monthly online study-group sessions led by collegiate-level educators that have decades of practical experience in planning. These sessions help planners become better planners by exposing them to real-life client situations to help them learn how to improve how they think like a planner as follows:
- Identify best-practices in what types of information should be gathered in each unique client relationship.
- Utilize techniques to develop decision-trees to optimize the analysis phase.
- Explore unique planning solutions to help the client better achieve their desired outcomes.
- Learn effective techniques to communicate the planner's recommendations and tips to address common client questions and objections.
Members can bring a case for consideration or just tune in to learn, share and grow with the group.
Sessions inspire open and honest dialogue that unites the Members into a team committed to each other's success.
Think Like a Planner
Expert-Led Webinars on Circumstantial Planning Topics
A substantial differentiating factor separating great planners from good planners is their knowledge on a myriad of planning issues.
Many planning topics are circumstantial as they don't always appear in every client fact-pattern. A great planner will develop a "planner's ear" which describes their ability to listen and recognize rare, yet important planning issues.
In order to help Members develop their "Planner's Ear", twice per month, APEG Members and Subscribers can gather and join our Curriculum Team, made up of experts in the legal, accounting, and financial planning communities, as they share their experience in circumstantial planning topics, best practices and advanced planning techniques.
These online events feature an educational session followed by a question-and-answer period to allow the attendees the opportunity to fully understand the content being shared.
Unlike other webinars which are offered by insurance companies and financial product sponsors, APEG's webinars are delivered in a truly academic manor without a product motivation in order to ensure the educational information is unbiased.
APEG's Learning Center Library
In order to help planners prepare to address issues with their clients, APEG maintains a rich library of its prior Expert-Led webinars. These sessions are chalked full of valuable information to allow the planner to understand both the academic and practical application of the featured topics.
Don't waste your valuable time trying to put together the pieces of a topic online through internet searches. Wisely invest your time in highly focused learning sessions tailored around particular client goals or financial planning issues.
All courses are developed by our national team of Curriculum Contributors which includes attorneys, accountants, financial planners, insurance experts and educators that are recognized as experts in their field of study.
Optional Enhancement
Pursue Your CFP® Designation
APEG has partnered with Oakland University to offer our Members and Subscribers an opportunity to advance their careers with the most recognized designation in the financial services industry. APEG Members and Subscribers benefit from their affiliation by receiving special pricing on tuition to the university's Personal Financial Planning Program.
Graduates of the program will receive a Certificate of Completion from the university and will have completed the educational requirement necessary to sit for the national examination to earn the rights to use the CFP® designation. The Oakland program is an executive program designed to be completed in under 12 months and delivers online live education. Many of the instructors in the Oakland curriculum are also instructors in APEG's Foundations of Financial Planning Course which allows for continuity between both educational opportunities.
Enrollment in Axtella Exclusive Membership
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