Eric Abowd, partner and lead financial advisor at Abowd & Rose Financial Group, was recently awarded with is the oldest designation in the annuity industry, the Certified Annuity Specialist® (CAS) designation, by The Institute of Business & Finance (IBF). The graduate level designation demonstrates the advisor’s expertise and commitment to helping individuals work towards their retirement goals with annuities as a suitable option. The CAS is the first and only such annuity designation recognized by numerous Fortune 500 Companies. The CAS designation is achieved through a commitment to 135 hours of education, including a six-module, 60-hour course and 15 hours per year of continuing education for the first five years following certification.
“Annuities are an important income source to many retirees,” said Abowd. In the United States, one in five retirees (19 percent) uses individually-purchased annuities for income. Of these retirees, 37 percent receive regular monthly payments guaranteed for life. Industry-wide yearly sales of annuities were $231.1 billion in 2011 compared with $214.6 billion in 2010.
“We believe that continuing our education immediately benefits our clients,” said Abowd. “Abowd & Rose Financial Group clients are afforded a high-level of satisfaction through three things that we value in our culture: client education, high-level client service, and implicit trust in our management of their finances. The CAS designation helps us deliver all three.”
