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Chartered Debt Advisor (CDA)

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.

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.

CDA EXAM STRUCTURE

Sr. No.	Name of Module	Type of Questions	Test Duration	No. of Questions	Maximum Marks	Pass Marks (%)	Negative Marking
1	Chartered Debt Advisor (CDA)	MCQ	2 Hrs	100	100	50	20%

Candidate Audit:

Equalifi will randomly audit a percentage of applications on a regular basis. Candidates will be responsible for providing the requested supporting documentation to verify their education and professional background as mentioned in the registration form. Equalifi’s practice is not to contact employers or educational institutions to obtain verification documentation on the candidate’s behalf. Failure to comply with the audit, falsification or misrepresentation of requested information and/or any unprofessional conduct will result in denial/cancellation of the exam registration and/or revocation of the program certificate. Candidates subject to audit will be notified by e-mail and will have 10 business days to respond. Once selected for audit, candidates will be required to satisfy the audit requirements before being able to receive the final certificate. Failure to comply with the audit will result in forfeiting all fees. Additionally, a candidate who does not comply with the audit will be subject to audit if reapplying for a future testing window.

Fee Details:

Exam Fee: INR 3,540

*Fee mentioned is inclusive of GST. Exam fee is applicable for each attempt.

Exam Preparatory Material

You can access the course tutorial recordings and study material on the Equalifi Membership Portal. Set up your free Equalifi Virtual Membership account here

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