Our Mission
We provide high quality financial education to help students understand their finances, and make better financial decisions for their retirement.
The Dodd-Frank act, which fundamentally changed Wall Street, formed a commission to better understand the level of financial literacy among American Consumers. The commission’s findings showed a startling lack of understanding of financial concepts, and strongly suggested financial literacy education for adults.
The Educational Courses we offer were developed specifically to educate students about financial terms, concepts, and strategies in a classroom setting giving them tools they need to make smart decisions about their financial future. Each of the courses are presented in an easy-to-understand format and cover all the bases to help you plan for your retirement. We teach courses all through the year, so be sure to check the Upcoming Events page often for our current schedule.
MAXIMIZING YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY
The Maximizing Social Security course provides a fundamental working knowledge of the Social Security program as it applies to retirement planning.
The materials cover the history of Social Security, how to qualify for benefits, spousal benefits, widow & widower benefits, taxation of benefits, working while you receive benefits, issues involved in claiming benefits early, and strategies to maximize your benefits while developing an income stream in retirement. You will learn information that will help you decide when to claim your Social Security benefits.
PRINCIPLES OF RETIREMENT PLANNING
The Principles of Retirement Planning course provides a fundamental working knowledge of the principles of conservative retirement planning as they apply to retirement planning.
The materials cover varied aspects of conservative retirement planning, such as changes in planning paradigms, history of markets, impact of bear markets, retirement budgeting, aspects of financial decisions, and more, while highlighting the ABC Planning Model. Students will increase their awareness of the overall risk in the markets as well as possible asset allocation models to help manage exposure to risk. This course also covers conservative retirement planning, income planning, asset allocation, and appropriate financial decisions. It is not designed to give specific solutions to individual needs.
THE TRUTH ABOUT ANNUITIES
A Successfull retirement plan provides the ability to maintain your lifestyle for the duration of your life.
The Truth About Annuities workshop is designed to help you attract a highly targeted audience of motivated annuity buyers. Giving you a multi-marketing platform for communicating how fixed index annuities (FIAs) are the hallmark of a successful retirement plan by helping provide retirees with safety of principal and income for life.
WOMEN & RETIREMENT
How women can create a guaranteed income for life Created in partnership with Holly Buchanan, an acclaimed author, speaker, and consultant specializing in empowering women to make sound financial decisions.
This course addresses the unique challenges and concerns women face in retirement. Women everywhere are asking:
- “How can I make sure I don’t run out of money?”
- “How can I maintain my lifestyle after retirement?”
- “What happens if the market crashes?”
YOUR LOCAL INSTRUCTOR
Your local Instructor is an active participant in the financial services industry and has been taught the proper objectivity necessary to raise students’ overall financial literacy about investments and planning strategies. Instructors approved by AFES are dedicated to following the directive of the Dodd-Frank Act which is; to improve the financial literacy of adult Americans.
Brian Widger
As your Instructor, I’m devoted to helping improve the financial literacy of adults 50 and over who are concerned about their retirement savings and how to ensure a safe, secure future. Our approach to financial planning differs markedly from the typical Wall Street approach because it considers all available options rather than just the narrow band that is traditionally touted by Wall Street and its representatives. Since circumstances vary by individual, one size does not fit everyone’s investment needs. Therefore, students are taught how to construct a financial plan for investing that fits their exact needs yet can be altered without pain should changing conditions warrant.
In each of our courses we examine and discuss investment choices and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of your options. I do not advocate shortcuts or secrets to wealth or investment gains but rather a conservative approach that fosters predictability, stability and availability to match the current and future needs of the individual. At the end of our courses students will have learned there is no “right” or “wrong” strategy, but rather “suitable” and “unsuitable” investments and “too large” and “too small” percentage allocations to otherwise suitable options for their individual circumstances.