Financial Competency Education and Training

Our Focus

Focus on Young Adults
Our core program is designed for young adults (18-35 years) who are in the early stage of creating their own wealth and achieving financial independence. They are capable of appreciating the skills offered and immediately utilizing the lessons learned in their own lives.

Focus on Women
We provide specially designed programs for women, particularly those women in the 40-60 year age range. It's designed to empower women to take charge of their financial life.

Focus on Family Groups
Sometimes the challenge of wealth becomes most acute at the time of a major liquidity event, such as an inheritance or the family's sale of a business. Siblings and cousins often share in this event and wish to learn together, regardless of possible differences in age.

Program Design

Our program is unique in the financial education sector, combining quantitative and qualitative issues, classroom instruction, simulation training, and practical real life experience.

We have a variety of program formats available and can tailor the time, curriculum and methodology to fit the needs and circumstances of our participants. Our core program involves continuous mentoring and coaching over 12 months. This format helps ensure that our participants become both competent and confident. To be effective and take advantage of the peer-to-peer interaction, this program requires a minimum of 10 participants.

Phase One

Immersion Retreat. Prior to this phase, each participant will be interviewed by a First Foundation Advisors team member and will complete a written pre-assessment of knowledge and skills. During this phase, we teach the curriculum outlined below which provides fundamental information and skills necessary for financial competency. We offer an East Coast retreat and a West Coast retreat annually. A post assessment will help participants identify what they have learned as well as what they would like to learn going forward.

Phase Two

Financial Investment Simulation Training. During this phase, participants are combined into small teams, typically 4-7 members. Each team is allocated cyber-dollars (simulated cash) of $1.0 million per team member.

The team is responsible for developing its own investment policy, allocating its funds, selecting individual equities, "purchasing" those equities, monitoring performance, rebalancing as they deem appropriate, and reporting monthly to all other teams on their status. The investment account updates automatically daily in real time, reporting actual results in the market.

To further engage participants and enhance the learning process, this simulation is designed as a team competition. At the end of the 3 months, all teams will join a conference call to discuss their results and experiences. We use an Internet platform to provide the technology for the simulation, and a program facilitator to monitor and guide the teams and respond to questions.

Phase Three

Investment Club. The third phase involves actual investment experience through participation in an investment club. This phase continues for 9 months after the start date. It not only reinforces the learning experience but helps to build the financial discipline and collaborative decision making skills that we seek.

The amount of funds invested depends on the commitment and capacity of each member. The minimum participating investment is $10,000, but there is no maximum amount. Each participant enjoys a proportionate return based on his or her investment share. This is not a competitive experience and the actual returns will vary depending upon the skill of the team and the market conditions.

Each of the teams continues to function together, following many of the techniques they have learned during the simulation phase. However, in this phase, they participate as members of the investment club.

Each team may invest as it determines, but they will be monitored and mentored by our team facilitator. First Foundation Advisors does not serve as an investment advisor and receives no fees or other compensation from the investment activity.

Phase Four

Debrief and Review. The final phase consists of a one day debrief and review of the learning experience, including a final report on the investment results. It's a chance to put everything in perspective and to reinforce how far everyone has come.

Click here to view the program syllabus

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