Recommendations To Assemble Insightful Teaching For Estate Planning Pros
September 6, 2008
Today’s financial services and estate planning professionals for retirement preparation are expected to integrate knowledge from a variety of disciplines and sources: trusts and estates, estate planning courses, investments, Roth IRAs, insurance training, and credit.
However, most financial advisors are often not ready to take on such a wide range of responsibilities. Most have one knowledge base - like a focus on mutual funds or tax minimization. However, Internet-based and ongoing corporate training can help your employees achieve that additional knowledge and build those skill sets.
At a time when the demands on trust, estate planning and other financial professionals are greater than ever, many institutions find themselves with a serious gap between staff expertise and baseline skills needed to deliver a consistent level of service quality. As a result, many employers are turning to in-house corporate estate planning courses. But, what goes into a good course?
What Constitutes a Sound Training Program?
Knowledge. Information. Expertise. These are the drivers of financial services. No matter what an institution develops in the way of products and services, the bottom line is that when employees are face-to-face with clients, what is in their heads is far more important than what is in their briefcases!
Because financial services and estate planning are so complex and constantly changing, they need training programs and resources that are equally flexible. That means they must have:
* A thorough course list that’s specifically designed for their company and specific services;
* Confident experts delivering the information and providing practical expertise; and
* A sound process that covers all the essential skills and reinforces them.
The Steps to a Great Estate Planning Training Program
Step one to an effective estate planning training program is to set out the basics. For any financial planner working in estate planning, that means outlining their basic job requirements. Instead of having your planners focused on reeling in new clients or upselling insurance add-ons, get them to focus on their job - effectively planning estates and retirement packages.
Step two in an effective training program is to quantitatively assess the knowledge of your staff. That means, being able to test them and identify who needs work and on what subjects. If you don’t know where an individual stands, you won’t be able to effectively train the person. Without results that you can see, you will not only be unable to train your staff, but you’ll be incapable of assessing the effectiveness of your training.
Step three of an effective estate planning program is to constantly reinforce what they’ve learned. If your financial planners aren’t retaining what they’ve been taught then that training program is a waste of both money and time. You need your employees to prove they’ve retained the information from their estate planning courses, whether through ongoing workshops or testing.
Tags: retirement planning
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