Today, agency frontline staff are increasingly called on to focus on building the financial capability of low-to-moderate income clients.  This means staff must simultaneously draw upon the competencies or skill sets of both financial counseling and coaching.  Traditionally, these approaches have been regarded as separate disciplines. However, while the counseling and coaching methods are distinct, they are also interrelated.  The interrelated nature of the two disciplines makes it imperative for staff to have an understanding of how to employ both skill sets to support clients’ achievement of their financial goals.  With increasing pressure for staff to have mastery of counseling and coaching techniques, now is the time for the financial industry to establish an integrated national curriculum and testing standards.  Such standards would advance the quality and consistency of staff instruction as well as interaction with low-to-moderate income clients.

 

Positioning Clients to Achieve Their Financial Goals

The recommendation to establish standards that integrate financial counseling and coaching training highlights how the professional financial field can operate to ensure a high-quality client experience.  The financial industry is highly regulated and maintains certification standards for professions such as Certified Financial Planners.   Yet, when it comes to staff who counsel and coach low-to-moderate income clients, the field lacks regulated certification standards to ensure staff are delivering quality and consistent services. Staff serving low-to-moderate income clients have numerous certification options, yielding a confusing array of designations.  However, these certifications do not require participants to demonstrate mastery of financial concepts and coaching techniques.  This crucial omission leads to inconsistencies in execution in the field, reducing the potential for clients to achieve the best possible outcomes.

 

By professionalizing the field, staff will be better prepared to assist clients in achieving their financial goals in two ways:

• They can identify critical client financial barriers and provide appropriate real-time financial guidance, and;
• Staff can effectively empower clients to take ownership of their financial decisions, which supports enduring behavior change.

 

Since 2011, The Prosperity Agenda has trained nearly 500 frontline staff in financial coaching. Follow-up interviews and mentoring over 100 trainees show staff struggle to demonstrate mastery of concepts to support quality execution with their clients.  These reports illustrate significant variation in how tools and content are applied, which leads to inconsistencies and, at times, inaccuracies in application of the training content.   Though the training curriculum was developed using financial competencies established by the US Department of Treasury, and the International Coach Federation coaching competencies, the training program does not test for mastery demonstration.  Therefore, it is unclear whether staff who complete the training program have in fact a high level of competency in both the financial content and coaching methods.   By professionalizing the field, staff would be held to standards of excellence and ethical performance regulated like other professions.  And, education programs like The Prosperity Agenda’s financial coaching program would be held to standards set and enforced through a certification body.

 

Field Observations

Observations conducted by both the Financial Empowerment Network and The Prosperity Agenda show staff struggle to convey accuracy in financial content to their clients, as well as mastery of coaching methods.  Yet, without standards that create a level of accountability, the door remains open for staff inaccuracies and inconsistencies, which produce ineffective client experiences.  For instance, some staff experience discomfort in discussing money matters with clients or struggle with their own money management concerns, which affects the quality of service provided to their clients.  As one program manager from a large Community Action Agency in Bellevue, Washington shared, staff training did not translate into client action.  “A client of ours had a $3,000 housing debt, but chose to spend their EITC refund on a trip to Disneyland, and weeks later called to say she was being evicted and needed help.”  She further explained that, “When I asked staff involved in the EITC program, who completed the coaching training, if they engaged clients in talking about how their refund would be spent, half of the staff heads went down.”

 

If mastery of the coaching presence was required, her staff would more likely exhibit confidence in working with clients.  Additionally, staff who learn how to self-manage can avoid being overpowered or enmeshed by their own or clients’ emotions.  Counselors, would also benefit from having such self-management skills given coaching is not typically integrated into financial counseling training.  Yet, they, too, encounter clients inhibited by emotions like fear, anxieties pertaining to interactions with banking professionals, or persistent crisis in the household.

 

Inconsistencies in service delivery also surface when staff inaccurately interpret the training content due to the influence of their personal values.  A past trainee from a large multi-service agency missed the intent of the training when he questioned whether financial coaching is even a fit for his agency’s low-income clients.  “I don’t feel the financial coaching framework is a right cultural fit for low-income people,” he says, “rather it is more appropriate for upper and middle income people.”  Unfortunately, this practitioner’s hesitation means low-income clients he serves will not gain from the coaching knowledge despite contrary evidence that suggests low income adults do in fact benefit from discussing such matters as savings and debt management.  As demonstrated by another practitioner leading a financial bootcamp for low-income adults, “Allowing clients to set their own goals and supporting them in choosing what steps to take is very empowering.  It allows them to focus on what is really important to them, rather than my own agenda. That is when the real, meaningful movement forward happens—when clients are engaged, have ownership, and feel valued and respected.”

 

If demonstrated mastery of financial counseling and coaching content were required, staff are more likely to overcome their own or their clients’ inhibitions engaging in money conversations.  This means clients have a greater chance of achieving their financial goals and experiencing longer lasting behavior transformation.

 

Going Forward

A survey of financial counseling and coaching curricula from across the nation indicates that agency staff could significantly benefit from the integration and standardization of both competencies as a way of improving the low-to-moderate income client experience and supporting achievement of their financial goals.  This professionalizing of the field would accomplish two goals:

• It would require staff to demonstrate mastery and ethical conduct, which could both resolve inconsistencies in application of financial concepts as well as embed coaching techniques into the financial counseling work, thus leading to a higher quality client experience; and
• It would require financial and coaching education programs and instructors to be held to the same ethical standards and to meet criteria established by a governing board through accreditation.

 

Taking the step toward professionalizing the field would ultimately instill confidence that staff are delivering quality financial services to their low-to-moderate income clients who are then better positioned to achieve lasting economic stability.