As a professional association, the Investments & Wealth Institute uses a multi-pronged approach to support the financial services industry. In addition to its role as a professional association, the organization establishes industry standards and offers its members educational opportunities comprised of financial advisors, wealth managers, and investment consultants. The organization also provides pathways for getting various certifications, such as the CIMA (Certified Investment Management Analysts), CPWA (Certified Private Wealth Advisor), and the RMA (Retirement Management Advisor).
The end of 2021 finds the Investments & Wealth Institute providing educational opportunities for its members and forming alliances to do so. The organization's mission is to provide its members with the tools and strategies necessary to face the myriad challenges they might face in today's financial services industry. In October 2021, the Investments & Wealth Institute formed an alliance that would increase CIMA certification globally, collaborated with another organization to expand its educational offerings, and hosted Behavioral Finance (BeFi) Week.
Investments & Wealth Institute and the Association of Professional Fund Investors (APFI) formed an alliance to raise the bar on professionalism while creating standards for investment professionals around the world. The two organizations will do this, keeping two main goals in mind.
The first goal involves establishing global awareness and adopting CIMA as the most relevant standard for fund investing and manager research. Investments & Wealth Institute has also entered into an agreement with APFI to support and empower professional fund investors to network with their peers, exchange ideas, learn, and have a collective voice when dealing with national/global standards regulatory bodies.
In the latter part of October, the Institute also joined forces with Broadridge Financial Solutions to expand its membership by offering education and technology tools. Through this particular alliance, Institute members have access to both the Fi360 Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) Program and the Fi360 Fiduciary Focus Toolkit, the former preparing professionals for the AIF certification.
The AIF certification shows that the person has a basic understanding of the fiduciary duty principles, conduct standards related to fiduciary duty, and the protocols involved with carrying out this duty. Further, the toolkit is a web-based platform that provides investment professionals with analytical, reporting, and management features to assist clients carefully.
This is another example of how the Institute tries to provide members with the needed tools to succeed in the financial services marketplace. The AIF educational suite complements the Institute's CIMA, RMA, and CPWA certifications.
Finally, in early October, the Institute worked with Schwab Asset Management, Cerulli Associate, and a few other organizations to host BeFi 2021, or Behavioral Finance Week 2021. Spanning a week, industry professionals educated financial advisors on behavior finance strategies to help their clients' investment outcomes.
Financial professionals learned how behavioral biases could impact their money decisions during this week-long event. Moreover, they also learned how to apply behavioral finance practices to increase their client's financial outcomes.
Those who attended the conference also participated in BeFi Barometer 2021 research, which looked at how these biases have changed after the hardship of 2020. In conjunction with Schwab Asset Management and Cerulli Associates, the Institute released this particular report on October 4.
BeFi Week also generated another study, the 2021 Investor Behavior in a Market Crisis. This study was a collaboration between Absolute Engagement and Behavioral Investing Institute and the Institute's partnership with Toews Corporation. This study looked at the gaps between client and advisor perceptions of their advisory relationships, and it outlined behavioral finance strategies that give clients more value.
