Retirement Management Advisor^® Certification

A. The Retirement Landscape

• Knowledge of retirement demographics and trends

• Knowledge of lifecycle finance and goals-based financial planning during retirement

• Understanding of the implications of modern retirement/lifestyle, and realities of aging

• Knowledge of the roles of the client, advisor, and industry Understanding of how advisors add value (concepts of advisor alpha and gamma)

B. Retirement Mindset and Behavior

• Knowledge of the evolution of retirement approaches (past, present, future)

• Knowledge of the planning implications of shifting from accumulation to decumulation

• Understanding of behavioral science related to finance, aging, retirement, cognitive decline, and family dynamics

• Ability to explore retirement possibilities and phases, and help set appropriate expectations

C. The Ethical Advisor

• Knowledge of business standards in the context of advisory channels, fiduciary responsibility, and regulatory regimes

• Knowledge of the regulatory requirements related to senior designations, NASAA and NAIC module rules, evolution of RMA adherence to state/national regulations

• Understanding of ethics concepts unique to retirement advice

• Understanding of the Investments & Wealth Institute Code of Professional Responsibility

A. Client Discovery and Analysis

• Understanding of the essential elements of a prudent, client-oriented advisory process - including discovery, analysis, assessment, plan development, plan implementation, ongoing monitoring and adjustments

• Ability to determine goals and retirement expectations by asking the right questions Ability to perform data-gathering and analysis best practices - comprehensive quantitative, qualitative, situational data

• Ability to survey financial and non-financial contracts and policies – insurance, estate docs, POA, healthcare directives, special circumstances

• Ability to create and implement retirement plans (year 1)

• Ability to monitor and adjust retirement plans (year 2-30)

• Ability to evaluate client segmentation and advisory frameworks, including retirement readiness/fundedness (Underfunded, Constrained, Overfunded)

• Knowledge of paycheck replacement and implications for planning

B. Assessing Retirement Readiness

• Ability to create detailed top-down or bottom-up projection models of current/ future sources of income and expenses – including expected increases or decreases over time

• Ability to optimize a retirement plan for income tax, property tax, consumption tax, estate tax, situational tax events, future tax liabilities

• Ability to prioritize essential (fixed and variable), discretionary, and aspirational expenses/liabilities, and understand changes in prioritization over time.

• Ability to select and apply appropriate discount rates for future income/expenses

• Ability to assess human capital (HC), social capital (SC), and financial capital (FC)

• The thorough process of constructing a comprehensive, present value household balance sheet – including assets (FC, SC, HC), liabilities (consumption, debt), and household equity

• Ability to interpret household balance sheet as a basis for forming full retirement plan – including retirement readiness, financial ratios, flooring level, strengths/weaknesses, completeness, accuracy, scenarios, and resilience

C. Retirement Risk Management

• Understanding of the tradeoffs between various theoretical approaches to risk assessment and risk management in the context of retirement planning

• Knowledge of the key differences and similarities of retirement risk concepts that result in particular outcomes– including risk aversion, risk tolerance, risk capacity, risk profile, risk exposure

• Knowledge of common categories of retirement risks – market, credit, inflation, household shocks, spending, income, healthcare-related expense, longevity, public policy

• Knowledge of diagnostic frameworks for assessing risk – hazard, exposure, consequences, probabilities

• Knowledge of strategy frameworks for risk management and its connections to a goals-based portfolio approach – retain, manage, pool, avoid

• Ability to estimate immunization needs in the context of a goals-based income/flooring portfolio

• Ability to estimate risk capacity in the context of a goals-based growth/upside portfolio

• Ability to estimate longevity needs in the context of a goals-based insurance/protection portfolio

• Ability to estimate cash needs in the context of a goals-based reserves portfolio

• Ability to adjust risk management strategy based on iterative planning, unplanned events, and changes in preferences

A. Retirement Portfolio Allocations

• Understanding of the tradeoffs between portfolio approaches for different segments of clients – (total return-based, goals-based, product-based) and the ability to select appropriate approaches for the desired outcome

• Ability to select the appropriate planning approach – including portfolio optimization, goals-based, liability-driven, asset-liability matching, safety-first vs probability-first.

• Ability to construct an income (floor) portfolio in the context of a goals-based plan, using a range of approaches – including SWPs, buckets, asset-liability or duration matching, laddering, barbelling

• Ability to construct a growth (upside) portfolio in the context of a goals-based plan, using a range of approaches – model vs. customized portfolios, active vs. passive, target-date glide paths

• Ability to construct a longevity protected portfolio in the context of a goals-based plan, using a range of approaches – total return, insurance-based

• Ability to construct a cash portfolio (reserves) in the context of a goals-based plan, including the use of cash flow reserve, floating floors, income reservoir, time segmentation

• Ability to develop capital market expectations to guide the selection of appropriate asset classes/investments and portfolio approaches – including interest rate regimes, fixed income and equity outlooks

B. Key Retirement Planning Decisions

• Knowledge of client-specific strategies for claiming American Social Security

• Knowledge of Medicare strategies Understanding of the range of portfolio withdrawal policies and their tradeoffs – The 4% rule, adaptive withdrawal rates

• Knowledge of the rules, policies, and regulations around required minimum distributions (RMDs)

• Ability to anticipate future changes in spending, income, risk, taxes, or other planning situations

• Understanding of legacy planning as the intersection between family dynamics and estate planning

• Understanding of basic estate planning, charitable-giving strategies

C. Implementation Strategies

• Understanding of how portfolio allocations and product selection are different but related – including decisionmaking criteria, tax efficiency, exposure

• Ability to recognize products capable of producing outcomes in the context of a goals-based portfolio

• Knowledge of tax-efficient investments, account location decisions, and withdrawal sequence

• Ability to select investment vehicles (traditional and nontraditional) and perform due diligence

• Ability to select insurance vehicles (annuities, LTC, life) and perform due diligence

• Ability to select lending vehicles (HECM, reverse mortgage, security-based lending) selection and perform due diligence

D. Life in Transition

• Ability to prepare for special situations – including gray divorce, life-transitions, widowhood

• Ability to recognize and address cognitive decline, elder abuse

• Knowledge of long-term care basics

• Knowledge of aging-in-place issues

E. Retirement Policy Statement

• Understanding of the retirement policy statement (RPS) as a governance, monitoring, communication, and compliance tool

• Understanding of the essential elements of an RPS, its similarities and differences to a traditional investment policy statement (IPS), and the purpose of the document for both the client and advisor.

• Ability to create, customize, and deliver an RPS