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NFI > Academy for Excellence > Course Offerings

Academy for Excellence Course Offerings

# - Required courses for "Associate" certification
* - Required courses for "Advanced" certification

Series I. Market Principles

  • The Financial Services Marketplace: A Primer # *
    The financial services marketplace is changing rapidly. Once community banks and local insurers have become part of global financial services firms now driven by the forces of the modern economy. How does it work? Who's in charge? How do your local institutions fit in? This session introduces the modern financial services marketplace and offers a prerequisite understanding for state lawmakers charged with crafting policy that governs this intricate and puzzling world. 
        Developer/Presenter:  John A. Tatom, PH.D., Director of Research, Networks Financial Institute
 
  • Financial Services by the Numbers: The Economics of Managing Risk *
    Financial services like other commercial enterprises are driven by profit motives and shareholder interests. Yet the nature of managing risk in an uncertain world separates these firms from fixed cost, volume businesses. This session examines the economic model underlying banking, insurance and securities and explores how the unique economic challenges and rewards companies face influence their operations and the decisions that they make.  

Series II. Supervision and Regulation   

  • Who's on First?: Understanding Financial Regulation and Supervision # *
    Although seemingly designed by Abbott and Costello, America's unique system of decentralized regulation plays a vital role in promoting U.S. financial markets as the strongest and most dynamic in the world. This session introduces federal and state regulators, outlines regulatory structures and key functions, and explores how the many varied and moving parts work in tandem to regulate and supervise all elements of the financial marketplace. 
        Developer/Presenter:  Dwight R. Larsen, AM, V.P. of Bank Value Advisory Services
  • Priority Number 1: Financial Safety and Soundness # *
    Although generally concerned that financial firms run properly, the chief concern of financial regulators is to look after financial safety and soundness of the companies they supervise. This session explores financial and operational oversight used by regulators to ensure that insurers are solvent, deposits are safe and debts are secure. 
        Developer/Presenter:  Dwight R. Larsen, AM, V.P. of Bank Value Advisory Services
  • The ABCs of Protecting Financial Consumers # *
    Living the American Dream today requires navigating a complex financial marketplace with more choices and potential pitfalls than ever before. An extensive patchwork of state and federal safeguards protects financial consumers from unsafe, unfair and deceptive trade practices. This session surveys consumer protections for banking, insurance and investments and explores how they work to promote and preserve financial security. 
        Developer/Presenter:  John A. Tatom, PH.D., Director of Research, Networks Financial Institute; and Shaun H. Clifford, Robert J. Kabel, and Charles Richarson of Baker & Daniels LLP; and Andrew L. Ehrlich, and Frank S. Swain of B&D Sagamore 
  • The Legal Framework *
    The American legal system entails a complex intermingling of all three branches of government to create, carry out and shape law in a way that provides meaningful guidance for countless individual actions, dealings and disputes.  This session examines the role of various constituents in the legal system as it uniquely applies to the financial services marketplace; outlines key legal issues; and reviews the tort system's impact on the design of financial products, the execution of company practices and ultimately the economics of the entire financial services marketplace. 
        Developer/Presenter:  George J. Benston, Ph.D., John H. Harland, Professor of Finance, Accounting and Economics, Roberto C. Goizueta Business School, Emory University

Series III. Product Lines

These sessions explore the nature, customers, producers and regulatory frameworks of major types of financial services products.

  • "When I'm 64": Savings and Investments
    As more Americans join the financial mainstream, the options for saving and investing have become increasingly complex and sophisticated. From stocks to bonds to mutual funds, from CDs and money market accounts to life insurance and annuities, these products have broken down one-time barriers that separated financial sectors to expand available services as people build assets, save for retirement and plan their estates. 
        Developer/Presenter:  David W. Dunning, Executive Vice President, Senior Managing Director, National City Bank, Private Client Group
  • Consumer and Commercial Lending: Fueling the American Economy
    From the sophisticated world of high finance to the everyday financial transactions, the free flow of credit underwrites the modern economy. But consumer and commercial lending also has evolved with the economic engine it fuels. Today, financial institutions of widely different shapes and sizes offer a vast array of lending products and services that distribute capital across the economy to meet the diverse needs of consumers and businesses. 
        Developer/Presenter:  Richard E. Beck, Jr., Senior V.P. and Corporate Sales Manager, STAR Financial Bank
  • Insurance for Consumers: Promising Security in an Uncertain World
    Insurance premiums represent one of the largest out-of-pocket expenses for the average American family. But in exchange for a fixed sum, the various forms of consumer insurance offer a promise to pay benefits if and when the unexpected injures one's home, auto, health, life or livelihood. These products, thereby, provide important financial security to families and vital stability to communities and the economy overall. 
        Developer/Presenter:  Stephen M. Avila, Ph.D., Assoc. Professor of Finance & Insurance, Miller College of Business, Ball State University
  • Commercial Insurance: The Cornerstone of the Economy
    Insurance allows businesses to manage the risks that are inherent in economic activity. Although the marketplace offers its own uncertainty, commercial insurance provides companies security against unforeseen risks, such as lawsuits, sick and injured workers, loss of property and even business interruptions and delay. In addition to traditional insurance, various alternative mechanisms have developed to help commercial entities transfer and manage risk. 
        Developer/Presenter:  Stephen M. Avila, Ph.D., Assoc. Professor of Finance & Insurance, Miller College of Business, Ball State University
  • The Health Care System
    Although access to medical care is viewed widely as a necessity of daily life, the mechanisms for financing and delivering these critical services remain a mysterious, misunderstood realm. From employer-sponsored benefit plans, managed care and traditional health insurance to government systems for the elderly, disadvantaged and uninsured, health care products and systems form a matrix that meets the basic health care needs of most-but not all-Americans. 
        Developer/Presenter:  Dana A. Kerr, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Finance, Ball State University

Series IV. Company Operations

  • Serving the Financial Customer *
    All the financial forces and macroeconomics aside, financial services is a service industry. Companies build reputations based on how they interact with, treat and seek to retain their customers. From customer hotlines to information management to loan servicing and claim settlement, this session provides an inside look at customer service practices and systems in the highly competitive world of financial services. 
        Developer/Presenter:  Dennis M. Flack, Vice President of CompeteNOW!
  • Assessing, Accepting and Resolving Risk *
    Financial consumers don't only pick their companies but companies also assess, select and sort their customers. Banks and insurers decide whether to offer a loan or write a policy to individuals or businesses and what rate to charge based on a variety of risk factors and charge different rates. The also must make decisions to resolve disagreements, address bad loans and cancel and non-renew policies. This session examines how companies make decisions that affect customers. 
        Developer/Presenter:  James Kallman, Ph.D., President, Kallman Consulting Group

Series V. Current Topics in Financial Services

Keynote Speakers and Current Topics
A true understanding of the financial services marketplace is incomplete without hearing from key industry leaders who propel the markets and the elected and regulatory officials who guide and oversee their actions.