Certified Retirement Counselor®
The Certified Retirement Counselor® (CRC®) is a one-of-a-kind certification and professional development program that enables retirement professionals to address the difficult challenges facing today’s retirees. The program is based on original research and analysis by a team of more than 100 highly respected retirement practitioners, and in partnership with InFRE’s academic partner, Texas Tech University. The CRC® is InFRE’s only certification, allowing us to focus full attention on ensuring that the program stays relevant and up-to-date.
To earn the CRC® certification and the right to use the marks, all CRC® Candidates must successfully pass the four-hour proctored multiple-choice examination covering the domains of practice and knowledge required to perform tasks listed in the CRC® Test Specifications. The CRC® examination is administered four times each year in January, April, July and October at computer-based testing centers managed by Prometric.
Preparing for the CRC® Examination
To help Candidates prepare for the CRC® examination, InFRE offers a set of five study guides and other resources. The study guide content is unique in that they not only cover retirement planning accumulation and distribution concepts, but also how to counsel clients and plan participants based on behavioral finance tendencies, different communication styles and gender/generational considerations. The CRC® program was therefore designed to be the most complete retirement planning professional development training solution for advisors ranging from new hires to the most experienced.
The five CRC® study guides include:
- CRC® 1: Fundamentals of Retirement Planning
Establishes the foundation for the CRC® study guide series by providing techniques for understanding the broad variety of factors that can affect a client’s/plan participant’s retirement goals. - CRC® 2: Fundamentals of Investments
Provides a comprehensive review of investment products and presents investment concepts that are critical to effective retirement counseling. - CRC® 3: Fundamentals of Retirement Plan Design
Covers concepts needed to guide your clients/plan participants in maximizing assets within different types of retirement plans and understanding Social Security benefits. - CRC® 4: Fundamentals of Retirement Income Management
Presents a well-developed retirement income planning process that will help you help clients/plan participants shift from retirement accumulation planning to retirement distribution planning. - CRC® 5 Principles of Retirement Counseling and Education
Provides the finishing touches for becoming a true retirement “counselor” in every sense of the word by exploring how to communicate with various personality types and deliver educational content using a variety of media.
For questions about the exam procedures or to pay your exam fee by phone, call 847-756-7350 ext 134.