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Let’s get your questions answered

Explore these FAQs for more info about our financial coaching programs, designed for new and experienced professionals. Whether you're seeking certification or honing your coaching skills, we're here to support you in your journey. 

General Information

  • No, a certification is not a requirement to start a financial coaching practice. However, clients are more likely to trust a certified financial coach. Completing a certification program gives you more knowledge, credibility, and marketability and shows you are committed to high-quality, ethical financial coaching.

  • A certificate verifies completion of a specific course or program of study, while a certification, such as our Accredited Personal Finance Coach®, demonstrates a higher level of competency, showing clients and employers you have a professional credential.

  • ICF is the world’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the coaching profession. They don’t train people but are a certifying body that accredits training programs, like ours, that meet ICF’s Core Competencies. You can apply for ICF certification after completing an ICF-accredited training program and meeting other requirements.

  • Yes! Accredited Personal Finance Coach® is an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC) accredited course.

  • Our approach primarily focuses on mindset. We teach coaches to ask deeper questions to see if a belief or trauma is blocking a client’s path to financial well-being. We encourage you to thoroughly understand not just financial content but also your client’s money mindset and what’s going on in our society. People are hurting when it comes to financial topics, oppressive financial systems, and racial and gender wealth gaps. So, if we, as coaches, want to help clients sufficiently, we must help them understand the difference between knowing better and doing better.

Program Details

  • You can read more info about each course in our course catalogs:

  • Mentor Coaches, including our founder, Saundra Davis, lead each course. They are personal finance experts and certified financial coaches, planners, and counselors.  Depending on the course, you will learn via live training sessions, mentorship sessions, coursework, and web-based study materials. 

    Our team is always one email away if you have any questions throughout your training and after completing a course.

  • Our courses are designed for small groups of 15 students to ensure personalized attention, a supportive learning experience, and a sense of community.

  • There will be one in-person training a year. These sessions are typically co-located with our other partners, such as the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education® (AFCPE®), the Financial Therapy Association (FTA), and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). 

    The in-person training opportunity for 2025 has yet to be scheduled. Please look out for more details in June.

  • All sessions are held in the Pacific Time Zone, typically in the mornings. 

Time Commitment and Accessibility

  • We created our courses with working professionals in mind! All courses are a hybrid structure with live training, mentor coaching sessions, self-paced assignments, and fieldwork experience.

  • We understand that things come up! If you know you’ll miss more than two hours of live instruction, please reach out to your trainer in advance to discuss your options. We want to make sure you stay on track and get the most out of your experience.  

  • You can complete and celebrate your APFC® certification in as little as six months.

  • We understand plans can change. If you need to adjust your registration, your request must be made at least 7 days before your course begins. We’ll do our best to accommodate your request, whether substituting a participant or transferring to a different course. Availability is limited, so please email us at certification@sagefinancialsolutions.org as soon as possible. 

  • Special accommodations are handled on a case-by-case basis. Please email us at certification@sagefinancialsolutions.org with a detailed request for your needs.

Financial Considerations

  • Sage Financial Solutions offers an equity-based pricing model.

    Equity-based pricing allows participants to self-select the pricing tier that best reflects their current financial capacity. This model is designed to support broader access while also helping sustain the cost of delivering high-quality training.

    The pricing model includes three tiers:

    Supported: For participants with limited financial resources who need a reduced rate.

    Sustainer: For participants who can pay the standard cost of their seat.

    Supporter: For participants or organizations with greater financial capacity who want to help offset organizational costs and support broader access for others.

    Pricing tiers are available during registration.

  • Email certification@sagefinancialsolutions.org to ask about how. 

    Our team is always one email away if you have any questions throughout your training and after completing a course.

  • A written notice for course cancellation must be made at least 10 business days before the course start date to be eligible for a full refund. The cancellation will be effective the day we receive your withdrawal notice, and your refund will be issued within 15 days.  Cancellations made less than 3 days before the course are not eligible for a refund.

For New Professionals

  • Start with our Financial Coaching Foundations course. Then, if you decide to continue toward full certification, you can enroll in Deepen The Learning APFC® Training and APFC® Certification.

For Experienced Professionals

  • Our APFC® program teaches you how to take a 360-view of your clients’ financial lives while equipping you with the tools to encourage commitment and inspire transformation within your clients and communities. Our program supports professionals across the Continuum of Financial Wellbeing. That means financial educators, counselors, planners, and therapists can get expert training to help their clients at the highest level.

    The APFC® program helps you integrate your knowledge of foundational financial principles with effective client communication to facilitate healthy financial habits.

  • Enroll in our APFC® program. Since you hold an AFC® certification, you’ve already met the financial education requirement for the financial coach certification and won’t have to complete a co-requisite.

  • Enroll in our introductory Financial Coaching Foundations intensive course to learn essential coaching techniques.

  • We offer a package just for financial coaching credentialing (our APFC® program). Or you can register for 1:1 mentorship, but to be eligible, you need to have already completed a credentialed coaching program and financial education co-requisite.

  • To earn the APFC® certification, participants must demonstrate financial competency. This requirement may be completed before or during the APFC® program, but documentation must be submitted before the APFC® certification is awarded.

    This requirement may be met through one of the following:

    • An approved financial credential, such as AFC®, CFP®, ChFC®, CFA, CFT, or CPA

    • Completion of a certificate, certification, or degree program in personal finance, financial counseling, financial planning, financial education, accounting, economics, or a related field

    • Substantial academic coursework in personal finance, financial counseling, financial planning, financial education, accounting, economics, or a related field

    The financial credentials listed above are provided as examples and not intended to represent all credentials that may satisfy this requirement. 

    Documentation may include a certificate, credential verification, transcript, or other official record showing completion.

    If you are unsure whether your prior education or credential applies, email certification@sagefinancialsolutions.org for review.

  • We no longer offer the FFC® certification, but if you’re an FFC® certification holder, you can maintain it with us or migrate to the APFC® program.

  • There is content in the APFC® training that was not in the FFC®, so you won’t feel like it’s a do-over. APFC® covers trauma-sensitive coaching techniques, mindfulness, cultural humility, and other topics that we didn’t teach in FFC®.

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Building a Practice

  • Many doors can open for you, whether you’re starting, pivoting, or expanding your career. 

    • Work as an independent financial coach and offer one-on-one or group coaching sessions. 

    • Join a financial coaching firm, bank, credit union, or other financial institution and collaborate with a team of professionals to provide financial coaching. 

    • Work for a nonprofit organization to create financial programming or offer financial coaching.

    • Add financial coaching to your offer ecosystem if you’re already working as a financial advisor, counselor, therapist, or life coach. 

  • Absolutely. We support professionals who serve within the Continuum of Financial Well-being and give guidance on what your referral network could look like, depending on the audience that you serve, the community that you’re in, and the services you’ll need to refer. Still, it’ll be up to you to put in the work to build your referral network. APFC® is a great place to start, as you’ll meet and train with a diverse cohort of peers.

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What our students say

  • "I had a solid foundation of technical knowledge, but I lacked the coaching and communication skills to truly guide people in a meaningful way."

    Through Sage’s program, I gained confidence in reflective listening, asking better coaching questions, and creating an environment where clients feel truly heard and understood. The collaborative learning environment, especially the hands-on role-play scenarios, allowed me to grow and apply these skills in real-world situations. Since completing the program, many clients tell me they’ve never felt so “seen” before. This is a direct result of what I learned through Sage, and I’m so grateful to have become a better communicator, not just professionally, but in my personal life as well.

    Josh St. Laurent, MS, CFP®, CFT

  • "Before Sage’s certification program, I was unknowingly leading my clients in sessions, a habit I developed from my background as a financial advisor."

    Now I have the foresight to slow down, facilitate conversations, and ask more open-ended questions in a way that guides my clients to discover their own answers and find their way. The program taught me to be more intentional in my coaching approach, and it provided me with a fresh perspective on how to support my clients more effectively. Since completing the certification, I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my coaching practice and I feel revitalized in my love for coaching. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have refined my skills and for the positive impact this has had on my client relationships.

    Leah Davis, Wealth & Wellness Coach