College for Financial Planning Launches Behavioral Finance Program

Advisors who complete the eight-week program can receive an accredited designation.

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The College for Financial Planning, a Kaplan company, has launched an accredited behavioral finance training program for advisors that rewards graduates of its eight-week course with an Accredited Behavior Financial Professional (ABFP) designation. 

The program is available through Kaplan College’s online learning platform and includes live online and on-demand classes, electronic course books and publications as well as HD videos, module quizzes and practice and final exams.

Topics covered include foundations and principles of behavioral financial , psychological perspective on economics and the role of psychological biases and emotions in financial decision-making. Kaplan says the ABFP designation is the first such advisor-focused designation from an accredited college or university.

Along with the launch announcement, Kaplan released the results of a recent online survey of 507 financial professionals that asked about their familiarity with and interest in behavioral finance. Close to 90% said they were familiar with the concept but only about 35% said they had received training in behavioral finance.

Close to 80% said they would be interested in such a training program and over 90% said it would help them build their client base and deepen relationships.

“Our survey results support what we’ve been hearing from many professionals — that there’s an appetite for advisor-focused behavioral finance training,” said Dirk Pantone, president of the College for Financial Planning, a Kaplan company.