School for financial planning sees an influx of students from banks.

DENVER -- The College of Financial Planning is bracing for a big surge of applications from bankers'

The Denver-based training school currently counts more than 2,000 bankers among its 18,000 students, Thirty banks have 'enrolled 10 or more applicants.

Students who complete the college's two-year program earn the professional designation of Certified Financial Planner.

"We certainly see that the banks are going to be a strong growth area for us," said Martin Siemion, the college's regional marketing representative.

Investment Unit Interest

Traditionally, most bankers who enroll in the program have come from private banking and trust departments.

"That's continuing, but we're also seeing new interest by the investment divisions of the major banks," Mr. Siemion said. "That's where we're anticipating growth."

One of the college's biggest customers is Chemical Banking Corp., which has enrolled 200 branch employees over the years.

The Chemical bankers are enrolled in the college's "foundations" program, a survey course in financial planning. The bank pays $375 for each student, far less than the $2,000 that students pay in the certified program.

Big Benefits Seen

Chemical currently has 30 people enrolled in the certified program and 25 in the survey course. Most are branch managers, personal bankers, or customer service representatives who need to become comfortable with investment products.

"Their feedback to us is that it was the most beneficial thing they had ever done, and also aided their personal understanding of financial planning," said Chemical vice president Arden Down.

Although some brokers have also expressed interest in the training, Ms. Down said that does not mean that Chemical's brokerage operation is taking on a formal financial planning approach.

"There's a difference between a financial planning approach and doing a full-blown financial plan. A lot of customers are saying. |I don't need a full-blown plan,'" Ms. Down said.

Investment Products Push

Bank interest in the training coincided with the two-year-old push into investment products by national banks.

"We began seeing large enrollments from the banking community in this program probably in only the last two years," said Amy Ost, the college's academic associate, who wrote the curriculum for the survey course.

"It's the customer service approach, where the banks look at the customer as a relationship as opposed to just a transaction. The financial planning approach deals with all the pieces of a person's life," she said.

Ms. Ost said she isn't aware of any other training program that serves financial institutions, adding. "I have a feeling we're going to continue seeing the growth."

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