Qualifications & Affiliations

The Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP^®) designation provides comprehensive instruction on building integrated and comprehensive retirement income plans.  The RICP designation is awarded by The American College of Financial Services to mid-career professional financial advisors upon successful completion of the academic program of study that normally takes approximately 2 years to complete.  Its key focus is understanding, choosing, and executing a strategy for generating sustainable income from available resources —whether that means using systematic withdrawals from a portfolio, building an income floor using bonds or annuities, and using a “bucket” strategy.  

The program, developed by more than 45 of the nation’s top retirement planning experts, provides students with best practices in areas including:

The American College of Financial Services, founded in 1927 and located near Philadelphia, is a nonprofit educational institution devoted exclusively to the academic study of financial services.  With over 150,000 alumni it is fully accredited by The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (the body that accredits colleges such as Princeton and The Wharton School).  It is dedicated to creating leaders within the financial services profession through superior instruction. 

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is an independent organization authorized by Congress to administer and enforce the rules governing registered brokers and broker-dealer firms in the United States.  

FINRA regulates the trading of equities, corporate bonds, securities futures, and options. Membership in FINRA is required to do business as a securities representative and representatives must have the FINRA designations pertinent to their area of the security business.  For personal financial advisors this includes the Series 7 and the Series 66 designations.  

Individuals who want to enter the securities industry to sell any type of securities must pass the General Securities Representative or Series 7 examination.  Individuals who pass the Series 7 examination are eligible to register to trade all securities products, including corporate securities, municipal fund securities, options, direct participation programs, investment company products, and variable contracts.

The Series 66 is a license qualifying individuals as investment advisor representatives or securities agents.  The Series 66, also known as the Uniform Combined State Law Examination, covers topics relevant to providing investment advice and completing securities’ transactions for clients.  This series fulfills the requirements of both the Series 63 and Series 65.

Nationwide is an independent broker/dealer with a commitment to guide, support and equip financial advisers with the best resources available to fulfill the financial planning needs and goals of their clients. 

Nationwide Planning advisers are qualified to provide on-going comprehensive planning in all facets of life events.  Furnished with a broad array of “best-in-class” products, prompt efficient support from the Nationwide Planning Operations and Customer Service teams, cutting-edge technology and best-of-breed research and adviser productivity tools at their disposal, advisers are equipped with everything they need to create custom-tailored financial planning solutions for every phase of life:

Unlike some of Nationwide’s competitors that use internally-managed proprietary investment and insurance products which generate significantly greater income when sold to clients, our firm’s entire business strategy is based on the underlying principle that a firm has to be independent and unbiased in order to provide the best and most objective financial planning solutions to investors. Otherwise conflicts of interest between the firm and its clients resulting from the sale of such proprietary products can easily enter into the investment decision-making process and create decisions which are not always in the client’s favor.  

At Nationwide Planning, the code of ethics, the screening process by which advisers are selected, our prohibition against proprietary products, and our open-architecture product platform converge to foster an environment that encourages our advisers to provide their clients with unbiased and objective advice and to recommend the products and services which will best meet their needs.

At Nationwide Planning the safety of our clients’ assets is our #1 priority, so we selected Pershing LLC , a subsidiary of The Bank of New York – Mellon as our custodian for client brokerage account assets.  Consider some of the many advantages:

• Pershing’s parent company, The Bank of New York – Mellon, is one of the world’s largest custodial bank with over $37 trillion in assets under custody. It is also one of the top global asset management firms with over $2.0 trillion in assets under management.  Bank of New York Mellon carries an “Aa1” credit rating from Moody’s Investors Services and an AA- rating from Standard & Poors.
• As an introducing broker-dealer, Nationwide Planning does not hold client assets.  All client assets are held at Pershing LLC or at approved third party fund managers (such as Blackrock, MFS, American Funds, and T.Rowe Price, among others).
• To further protect your assets, Pershing provides excess Securities Investor Protection Corporation^™ coverage that goes beyond normal SIPC^™ limits.

• 2020 – Awarded the “2020 Industry Leaders Award for Outstanding Prime Brokerage – Client Service” by Global Custodian 
• 2020 – Ranked as “Best Custodian / Prime Services” by Alt Credit Intelligence in February 2020
• 2019 – Ranked #1 for client brokerage account statements presentation of information by DALBAR, a market research firm that promotes higher standards for investor communications, January 2019.
• 2019 – Winner “Best Global Custodian to Private Client Businesses” Award at the Wealth Briefing European Awards – 2019
• 2018 – Winner “Best Strategic Platform Partner Award”