Why work with a Retirement Income Certified Professional®?

The RICP® is an advanced designation appropriate for advisors specializing in the retirement income planning field. The RICP® is playing a key role in educating advisors to guide Americans in the most challenging financial task of their lives – generating lifelong retirement income.

A staggering 10,000 Baby Boomers turn age 65 every day. These people will need the knowledge of an experienced and educated advisor as they plan for their future. Many Americans expect to live a long time in retirement, but most don't have pensions to rely on the way their parents did. People just aren't sure how to draw down their savings and live a fulfilling lifestyle in retirement at the same time. And the strategies people need to use in retirement are very different from the ones they used to build up their nest eggs.

The American College created the RICP® to prepare financial advisers to help Americans make sure their nest eggs last and have greater peace of mind during a retirement that could be decades long. It focuses on topics like how to convert your savings into steady retirement income, choosing when to claim Social Security and company retirement benefits, addressing health and long-term care and more. The RICP® delves deeply into the specific area of retirement income planning. It addresses everything from how retirees can use their savings in smart, strategic ways to realize their dreams during retirement, to making a financial action plan for how they'll be cared for if they can no longer care for themselves. It also trains advisors to plan for potential issues that can have a serious negative impact on a person's retirement plans.

While many advisors are specialists at wealth creation, there is an urgent demand for practical ways to structure effective retirement income plans. The risks clients face – economic and market uncertainty, inflation, outliving available income, change in social safety nets and rapidly escalating healthcare costs – means financial professionals need all the latest thinking and techniques to serve their clients’ changing needs.