Understand how advanced knowledge, skills, and capabilities come together to empower today’s financial advisory practitioners and teams.
The pursuit of professional excellence starts here.
The wealth management profession is constantly evolving in response to rapidly changing market, political, technology, and societal dynamics. In addition, financial and wealth advisors must be sensitive to changes in client behaviors, motivations, and expectations.
In such an environment, it’s essential to have a clearly defined understanding of the skills, knowledge, and capabilities that will distinguish your expertise—and enable you to provide your clients with positive outcomes in a competitive global marketplace.
To create IWI’s Body of Knowledge—the heart of our certifications and the foundation of a thriving profession—we combine a proven job analysis methodology with the real-world experience of the best and brightest in our industry.
The result is a set of core competencies that are recognized across academic and industry institutions as the preeminent requirements for an advanced, holistic wealth management practice.
Read the Research ReportA Body of Knowledge is a documented set of core competencies you must meet to practice your profession. Professional associations across the financial services industry have documented their own sets of core competencies.
To deliver comprehensive and tailored financial advisory services for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and institutions, wealth management professionals and teams must demonstrate core competencies across three distinct roles.
Balancing theory and practical knowledge, the CIMA® certification covers 4 knowledge domains and 20 sections. These topics go beyond the fundamentals, providing deep experience with advanced portfolio management, portfolio construction, and risk management techniques and a systematic process advisors and consultants can use to activate client strategies.
Learn how these capabilities are weighted on the CIMA® examSections | |
|---|---|
Fundamentals | Statistics and Methods Applied Finance and Economics Global Capital Markets |
Investments | Vehicles Equity Fixed Income Alternative Investments Options and Futures Real Assets |
Portfolio Theory and Behavioral Finance | Portfolio Theories and Models Behavioral Finance Investment Philosophies and Styles Tools And Strategies |
Risk and Return | Attributes of Risk Risk Measurements Performance Measurement and Attribution |
Portfolio Construction and Consulting Process | Ethics Client Discovery Investment Policy Portfolio Construction Manager Search and Selection Portfolio Review and Revisions |
Uniquely designed to marry wealth management knowledge with human dynamics, the CPWA® certification covers 4 knowledge domains and 11 sections. These topics provide specialty skills for dealing with legacy issues, family estates, and the needs of executives and closely held business owners.
Learn how these capabilities are weighted on the CPWA® ExamSections | |
|---|---|
Human Dynamics | Ethics Behavioral Finance Family Dynamics |
Wealth Management Technical Design | Tax Planning Portfolio Management Risk Management and Asset Protection |
Legacy Issues | Charitable Giving and Endowments Estate Issues and Wealth Transfer |
Specialty Client Services | Planning for Executives Planning for Closely Held Business Owners Retirement Management |
The capabilities required for RMA® certification cover 4 knowledge domains and 11 sections. They empower retirement advisors to bring an understanding of client behavioral drivers together with retirement lifecycle planning best practices, enabling a higher level of service for high-net-worth clients.
Learn how these capabilities are weighted on the RMA® examSections | |
|---|---|
The Retirement Opportunity | Module 1—The Retirement Landscape Module 2—The Retirement Mindset Module 3—The Ethical Advisor |
The Retirement Client | Module 4—Client Discovery and Analysis Module 5—Assessing Retirement Readiness Module 6—Retirement Risk Management |
Retirement Planning Technical Design | Module 7—Retirement Portfolio Allocations Module 8—Key Retirement Planning Decisions Module 9—Implementation Strategies Module 10—Life in Transition Module 11—Retirement Policy Statement |
* Please note that faculty and lecturers at partner institutions are subject to change.
“I learned about Investments & Wealth Institute about 20 years ago and found they have deeper, richer content in their journals and conferences than some other certifying organizations. And they have two of the only financial advisor certifications that are accredited at the highest levels, including global accreditation. That was important to Yale in deciding which certification we wanted to support with our education program.”
As you can see, the core competency for each IWI certification focuses on a specialized area of financial advising.
But because they take a multidisciplinary approach, the three certifications are not siloed.
When combined, the three core competency matrices form a powerful, overarching Body of Knowledge that empowers advisors and firms to offer comprehensive, holistic services—and foster long-term, highly successful client relationships.
Investments & Wealth Institute applies an internationally accredited best practices approach to personnel certification. We partner with third-party psychometric organizations—experts in job task analysis—to conduct ongoing surveys with financial advising professionals and their clients. IWI, our board of directors, and our certification commissions leverage these studies as they continually monitor industry trends and innovations in investment and wealth management practices.
Read Our Job Analysis ResearchIWI brings together teams of experts—including our certification commissions, third-party education researchers, independent testing agencies, and IWI member volunteers—to ensure exams and certification requirements accurately reflect the knowledge, skills, and competencies defined in the Body of Knowledge.
Learn About IWI Exam StandardsEducation providers for the CIMA®, CPWA®, and RMA® education programs do not see exam questions—so they are not “teaching to the test.” Instead, they provide comprehensive instruction that covers every core topic in depth. With this pragmatic approach, you can be confident you won’t be learning rote facts. You’ll be incorporating meaningful knowledge that you can use in your practice right away.
Learn about education providers:
CIMA®
Defining wealth management is a rigorous and demanding process. IWI’s multi-disciplinary Body of Knowledge ensures our standards-based, accredited certification and education programs are built on a solid foundation: a documented standard that defines the skills, knowledge, and capabilities that financial advisors must master to practice their profession.
Learn more about how to integrate IWI’s Body of Knowledge into your practice.
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