Retirement Industry Designations

The Professional Plan Consultant™ (PPC™) Designation

Financial Service Standards is the sponsoring organization for the Professional Plan Consultant™ (PPC™) Designation - the only industry credential that provides designees exlusive access to a complete suite of tools to help implement a service model that meets the ERISA standards faced by plan sponsors and fiduciaries. The 401k Service Training Program™ provides program graduates with a working knowledge of how to implement a process to meet and exceed the service standards set for financial professionals in the retirement plan industry.

Compare Retirement Industry Credentials

Often times, it is difficult to discern between the various designations available for professionals who specialize in the retirement plan industry.

To help you better understand the designation benefits, what specialization each implies, training time and costs, and the ongoing requirements of each designation, Financial Service Standards has developed a comprehensive Retirement Credential Comparison Chart.

Download the Retirement Credential Comparison Chart

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PRELIMINARY RETIREMENT CREDENTIAL COMPARISON CHART.

If you have any questions, comments, or requested changes to the data in the comparison chart, or to request permission to use this chart, contact us.

Compiling the Data

This chart and accompanying information was compiled with data current as of January 15, 2007. Each sponsoring organization was asked to complete a form to provide the most accurate information available. For those organizations that did not respond to this form or referred us to their website, information was pulled from the sponsoring organization’s website to compile the data. FSS makes no warranties as to the accuracy of the data listed or provided by the sponsoring organizations.

FSS is not affiliated with any of the other sponsoring organizations and does not endorse any specific designation other than the PPC™ Designation. FSS does, however, firmly believe in continuing education and specialization and encourages all who want to specialize in the retirement plan industry to seek and receive designations that will provide the knowledge necessary to meet the needs of plan sponsors as an industry ‘expert’. This includes any and all of the designations listed on the comparison chart.