The Registered Financial Consultant (RFC) is a professional designation awarded by the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants (IARFC) to those financial advisors able to meet the high standards of education and experience that are required of its members.
The IARFC is an organization of financial professionals formed to foster public confidence in the financial planning profession, to help financial advisors exchange planning techniques and to give deserved recognition to those practitioners who are truly qualified and committed to professional education.
The IARFC planning professional association requires its members to meet seven stringent requirements: Education, Examination, Experience, Licensing, Business Integrity, Adherence to a Strict Code of Ethics, and Maintenance of Proficiency with a minimum of forty hours per year of continuing education in the field of financial planning. The IARFC holds that on-going professional education is required for an advisor to serve the public effectively.
The primary goal of the IARFC is to provide the public with a pool of well-qualified practitioners from which to choose a personal advisor. The IARFC accomplishes this by limiting the RFC designation to only those applicants who meet its high standards of qualification. It removes the designation from anyone who fails to maintain proficiency through continuing education, as well as from anyone who betrays public trust by failing to live up to its code of ethics or who have a professional license revoked or suspended for any reason.
A computer bank of members and their qualifications is maintained to provide the general public with the names, addresses and phone numbers of the nearest Registered Financial Consultants. This service is available to any interested party through the IARFC website.
