Financial Coaching Trainings, Certifications, & Resources

A wide variety of trainings and certifications exist in the profession of financial coaching or counseling. There are widely recognized certifications, but typically none that are required for coaches or counselors who are not offering fiduciary services or investment advice. The below trainings and certifications may carry a cost or fee to attend.

The information on this website is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Financial Empowerment Network.

Association for Financial Counseling Planning Education (AFCPE)

The Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education® (AFCPE®) is a non-profit professional organization created to promote the education and training of the professional in financial management. Certified individuals must meet education, experience, and ethical requirements. In addition, continuing education and annual fees are required to maintain a certificate. 


Change Machine

Change Machine builds financial security through people-powered technology. Their social enterprise and financial coaching platform is a scalable solution for social service organizations and public agencies to embed effective financial coaching practices into their work with individuals and contribute to lasting economic change. The platform offers self-paced training modules to build financial coaching knowledge, practical skills, and confidence, as well as a toolbox with more than 150 customer-facing tools and tipsheets, available in English and Spanish.


CNM Coach Training

CNM Coach Training is a program of CNM Ingenuity, a non-profit organization operated by Central New Mexico Community College. They offer training for financial coaches and academic coaches, both virtual and in-person. Customizable training packages for organizations are also available. 


College For Financial Planning

Foundations in Financial Planning Program is designed to provide basic, practical knowledge of the financial planning process and the five disciplines of financial planning. Students are introduced to different product categories, essential terminology, and general concepts applicable to financial planning. Completing the Foundations in Financial Planning course will allow you to use the Registered Paraplanner or RP® mark.

CFP Certification Professional Education Program is delivered via the College’s exclusive MyChoice learning platform. Most students complete their studies within 1-2 years, although your completion time may be faster or slower than the duration cited. Students are permitted up to 3 years to complete the program. Completing the program fulfills the core education requirement for certification by CFP Board of Standards, qualifying you to sit for the CFP® Certification Examination.

Additional information on CFP Board’s requirements can be found on their website. Completion may allow you to earn up to 15 semester credit hours toward a Masters of Science in Personal Financial Planning, and between 150-278 hours of continuing education credit with some organizations. 


Florida Prosperity Partnership (FPP)

The Florida Prosperity Partnership offers the CPFinCap, which is a professional certification initiative powered by The Institute for Financial Capability. The CPFinCap will introduce, enhance and expand the broad knowledge base required to be a wholly effective practitioner in the field of Financial Capability.

The CPFinCap will leverage social learning and learning synthesis principles to immerse practitioners into a twelve-week, holistic learning experience that touches many major components of the emerging Financial Capability profession.


National Association of Certified Credit Counselors

Successful candidates receive the Certified Credit Counselor or Financial Health Counselor or Debt Settlement Specialist certification, a two-year renewable certificate along with membership in the National Association of Certified Credit Counselors.


NeighborWorks AMERICA

NeighborWorks Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC) offers certifications for homeownership and community development practitioners.

You can learn with NeighborWorks at in-person training events or -- for greater convenience and cost efficiency -- online.  Most of their courses count toward professional certificates and certifications that help advance your career.


Prosperity Agenda 

The Prosperity Agenda offers training and support for their Family-Centered Coaching model. Family-Centered Coaching equips staff with the mindset, tools, and skills to work with families holistically towards financial wellness. Alongside an free toolkit, they provide training and technical assistance for human service organizations to steward change across leadership, supervisors, and staff working directly with families impacted by trauma, racial economic inequities, and poverty.


Sage Financial Solutions

Sage Financial Solutions delivers a program that provides you with the skills and techniques to build upon your financial foundation and support clients as they make lasting financial behavior change.

The  Financial Fitness Coach certification program models the coaching methodology by meeting you and supporting your professional development on your terms with our team of mentor coaches. Financial Coaching works to narrow the gap between what people know and what they do; it illuminates—through thoughtful questioning—what gets in the way of meeting life goals. 


Trauma of Money

The Trauma of Money (TOM) Method is a compassionate approach, delivered through online training, that explores frameworks for healing collective and individual traumas to create financial safety and well-being. TOM is a unique online financial literacy program that brings together the psychology of trauma and scarcity and our relationship with money. 

TOM offers two enrollment options.

  • Public Enrollment for those wanting to heal their own relationship with money
  • Professional Certification for those wanting to integrate the TOM approach into their own offerings.

TOM certifies professionals, such as therapists, coaches, counsellors, venture capitalists, entrepreneurship program directors, non-profit directors who work with those who have been economically marginalized, financial advisors, mortgage brokers or debt counsellors, to teach these new collaborative methods to their clients, helping them overcome trauma and create financial security.

Guide to Remote Financial Coaching

To better understand the benefits and challenges of remote service delivery, the CFPB talked with leaders of nine programs that are providing remote financial coaching. This Guide to Remote Financial Coaching draws insights from those discussions to serve as a resource for programs that are establishing or refining their remote financial coaching programming. The guide identifies promising practices and common challenges faced by programs that are pioneering this service. 


Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)

Financial Opportunity Centers (FOCs) are career and financial coaching service centers that help families living on a low- to moderate-income build effective money habits and focus on the financial bottom line. LISC has a network of more than 100 FOCs across the country, embedded in local community organizations that are trusted, known for their history of providing quality services, and convenient to where people live and seek out services.

FOCs provide employment and career counseling, one-on-one financial coaching and education and low-cost financial products that help build credit, savings and assets. They also connect clients with income supports such as food stamps, utilities assistance and affordable health insurance.  The cornerstone of the FOC model is providing these services in an integrated way—rather than as stand-alone services—and with a long-term commitment to helping clients reach their goals.  

LISC offers support and training to implement and maintain services through the FOC Network, which includes ongoing training webinars.


Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund

Professionally trained counselors and coaches help consumers of all income levels learn how to manage their finances, pay down debt, increase savings, establish and build credit, and access safe and affordable mainstream banking products.

The “Supervitamin Effect” of financial counseling and coaching, as distinct from generalized “financial education” is the core work at the Financial Empowerment Centers (FEC) across the country. Today it is the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund’s (CFE Fund) comprehensive approach to financial counseling and holds the promise of saving cities money over the long term.

To facilitate local counselor training, the CFE Fund released its newly established FEC Counselor Training Standards and Code of Ethics. The standards outline the financial content areas, counseling and coaching skills, practice and experiential learning, and socio-economic and cultural context setting necessary to serve the diverse needs and backgrounds of FEC clients.

To facilitate local counselor training, the CFE Fund has approved ten national and regional training providers’ courses that align with the FEC Standards.