The Chartered Debt Advisor (CDA) is a comprehensive education program which focuses on debt counseling and coaching to considerably improve clients’ financial well-being.
Debt is an integral part of personal finance for every client. With the change in lifestyle aspirations, more and more people are taking loans to fulfill their consumption needs. In many cases, the clients out of their ignorance are not able to manage their debts and fall into a debt trap. Financial Planners and Wealth Managers face a lot of client situations where strong debt counseling skills are required to help clients avoid any such tricky situations. A client doesn’t need to be in direct circumstances to seek debt counseling. It’s applicable to people in all financial situations when it comes to creating a budget, debt consolidation strategy, financial advice, credit building, mortgage assistance and debt payoff options.
The Chartered Debt Advisor shall engage with clients across the entire debt life cycle through deep focus on essential counseling techniques, financial problem solving, consumer credit, consumer protection legislation, and the sources and solutions of delinquent debt. Curriculum includes essential counseling skills, solution-focused budget analysis and the latest on credit and lending.
Chartered Debt Advisor will:
- Assess clients’ overall financial situation by reviewing income, assets, debts, expenses, credit reports, or other financial information.
- Create debt management plans, spending plans, or budgets to assist clients to meet financial goals.
- Recommend strategies for clients to meet their financial goals, such as borrowing money through loans or loan programs, declaring bankruptcy, making budget adjustments, or enrolling in debt management plans.
- Prioritize client debt repayment to avoid dire consequences, such as bankruptcy or foreclosure or to reduce overall costs, such as by paying high-interest or short-term loans first.
- Explain general financial topics to clients, such as credit report ratings, bankruptcy laws, consumer protection laws, wage attachments, or collection actions.
Advise clients on housing matters, such as housing rental, homeownership, mortgage delinquency, or foreclosure prevention. - Negotiate with creditors on behalf of clients to arrange for payment adjustments, interest rate reductions, time extensions, or to set up payment plans.
- Review changes to financial, family, or employment situations to determine whether changes to existing debt management plans, spending plans, or budgets are needed.
- Conduct research to help clients avoid repossessions or foreclosures
- Explain loan information to clients, such as available loan types, eligibility requirements, or loan restrictions.
- Prepare written documents to establish contracts with or communicate financial recommendations to clients.
Topics Covered:
- Debt Market Overview
- Regulations
- Key Market Participants
- Product Overview- Unsecured Debt
- Product Overview- Secured Debt
- Credit Health
- Credit Decisions
- Personal Credit Planning
- Credit Enhancement
Study Material & Tutorials:
CDA is an instructor-led course and includes online tutorials, study notes, exercises, instructional slides, case studies, assignments, practice tests and more.
Training Calendar:
You can find the upcoming training schedule for CDA program here
Exam Details
Equalifi is offering the CDA examination on an external, remote-proctored platform. Candidates can schedule an exam by paying the exam fee. Once the exam fee payment is done and exam registration is confirmed, the exam platform sends out the exam link by email to the candidates. Candidates can appear for the exam anytime any day within the next 1 year through this exam link from any place. Candidates need a good internet connection and a functional camera on their PC/ Laptop to appear for this exam.