June, 2015 InFRE Update: InFRE in the News

The International Foundation for Retirement Education® (InFRE) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1997. Our mission is to raise the retirement readiness of the American worker through:

• Retirement-specification certification for professionals
• Retirement income and plan administration education
• Professional development/continuing education and training, and
• Retirement readiness research and tools for consumers/employees.

We are committed to protecting the general public by advancing recognition among retirement planning professionals of the need for continuing education, a code of ethics, and professional certification for retirement plan counselors.  To this end, InFRE strives to increase the recognition of the Certified Retirement Counselor® (CRC®) certification in the financial industry and with consumers.

In the last couple of months, the CRC® and InFRE were not only mentioned, but a focal point of several articles.

• Credential to Look for in a Financial Adviser, Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2015. In this article to educate consumers about how to choose an advisor to help with retirement income planning, the CRC® was called out as one of the top three designations among over 50 with the words “senior” or “retirement” in their names.
• In A Well-rounded Retirement Planning Education, LifeHealth Pro, May 22, 2015, author Ed McCarthy interviewed InFRE’s Managing Director, Kevin Seibert, and describes how the CRC® provides a more holistic, approach to enable advisors to provide comprehensive pre- and post-retirement planning.
• In Retiring? You have 401(k) options, USA Today, June 6, 2015, Robert Powell interviewed Betty Meredith, InFRE’s Director of Education and Research, to respond to a reader’s question about what he should do with his 401(k) account since he was on the verge of retirement.

InFRE is currently in the middle of a major revision to its Retirement Readiness tool and research for use by plan sponsors, consumers and employees. Stay tuned for an update on these initiatives in the September, 2015 issue of Retirement InSight and Trends.