APFC® Certification Bundle

Become a Confident, Skilled, and Certified Financial Coach

This comprehensive three-part training program is designed to take you from foundational knowledge to advanced coaching skills and professional certification. Whether you’re just starting out or ready to refine and validate your expertise, this bundle offers a clear path toward becoming an Accredited Personal Finance Coach® (APFC®).

Course 1: Financial Coaching Foundations

Build essential coaching skills and explore how financial beliefs and barriers shape client behavior. Learn how to ask powerful questions and guide clients from awareness to action.

The Course Schedule

Start Date: May 7, 2025
Last Session:  May 15, 2025
Enrollment deadline:  April 30, 2025

Live Session Times

This intensive course is held virtually for 3.5 days on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Total Training Hours: 21

Session One: May 7 from 9 AM – 4 PM

Session Two: May 8 from 9 AM – 4 PM

Session Three: May 14 from 9 AM – 4 PM

Session Four: May 15 from 9 AM – 12 PM

All session times are in Pacific Standard Time. Each of the first three sessions includes a one-hour lunch break.

Growth Work

Alongside live training, you’ll complete self-assessments and assignments in our online learning lab. This growth work helps you track your progress, reflect on your learning, and deepen your understanding of the course material.

What to expect in this course

Session One: Foundations of Coaching and Financial Wellness

Learn fundamental financial coaching principles and philosophies and discover who you want to be as a coach through a lens of financial wellness.

Session Two: Psychology of Money and Trauma-Informed Coaching

Explore the psychological factors behind financial decisions and how to approach coaching with empathy and emotional intelligence.

Session Three: ICF Standards, Coaching Agreements, and Discovery

Familiarize yourself with the ethical standards set by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and how to create clear agreements and values-aligned goals with clients. 

Session Four: Action Planning, Accountability, and Engagement Lifecycle

Practice creating action plans that keep clients engaged and on track toward their goals while learning how to provide ongoing support as their life circumstances change.

Course 2: Deepen the Learning APFC®

Enhance your confidence, presence, and coaching techniques. Engage in role-play, case studies, and peer feedback to prepare for high-impact client relationships and real-world challenges.

The Course Schedule

Start Date:  May 21, 2025
Last Session: July 9, 2025

Live Session Times

We’ll meet virtually weekly on Wednesdays from 9 AM to 12 PM PST. 

Total Training Hours: 24

Session Five: May 21
Session Six: May 28
Session Seven: June 4
Session Eight: June 11
Session Nine: June 18
Session Ten: June 25
Session Eleven: July 2
Session Twelve: July 9

Growth Work

Alongside live training, you’ll complete self-assessments and assignments for each session in our online learning portal. This growth work helps you track your progress, reflect on your learning, and deepen your understanding of the course material.

What to expect in this course

Session Five: Ethical Practice and Coaching Mindset

Align with your vision as a coach, explore ethical coaching practices, and develop a mindset that inspires positive change in your clients’ financial behaviors. 

Session Six: Co-creating the Coaching Relationship

Learn how to build trust with clients, set clear expectations, and create a safe space for productive, open dialogue throughout the engagement lifecycle. 

Session Seven: Effective Communication

Sharpen your active listening skills and learn how to help clients clarify their values-based financial goals and aligned actions for progress. 

Session Eight: Cultivating Learning and Growth

Develop skills for facilitating client growth and helping clients integrate healthy financial habits into their lives, ensuring they continue to thrive long after your coaching sessions end. 

Session Nine: Case Study Application

Create your own case study and collaborate with your cohort peers to explore how you would handle different coaching scenarios. This role-playing opportunity is a chance to bring in real-life challenges you’re facing with clients alongside the prepared case studies we provide for practice. 

Session Ten: Full Engagement Practice

Build on the skills you practiced in Session Nine by working in triads, rotating through roles as coach, coachee, and observer to immerse yourself in more coaching scenarios. This practice will strengthen your ability to apply coaching frameworks to complex situations and keep clients focused and motivated throughout the coaching process.

Session Eleven: Business Development

Refine your skills with additional rounds of full engagement practice and feedback from your triad peer group. You’ll also revisit your coaching vision, create a one-page business plan, and learn about essential business practices like budgeting, insurance options, and business protection, whether you want to build a solo, group, or team coaching practice. 

Session Twelve: Closing Activities & Graduation

Complete your Deepen The Learning APFC® training with a final round of triad peer group practice. 

Course 3: APFC® Certification

Complete your certification with mentorship, real client experience, and performance evaluations. This final step helps you demonstrate your coaching ability with confidence.

The Course Schedule

Start Date: July 19, 2025
End Date: August 16, 2025

Live Session Times

We’ll meet virtually every Saturday between 10 AM – 12 PM PST for mentoring sessions. Your exact mentorship times will be scheduled once the cohort is full. 

1:1 Mentorship: 3 one-hour sessions

Group Mentorship: 7 total hours spread across multiple sessions

Session One: July 29

Session Two: July 26

Session Three: August 2

Session Four: August 9

Session Five: August 16

Outside of the mentorship sessions, you will have up to two years to complete your experience hours and final evaluation to earn your APFC® certification. 

What to expect in this course

1:1 Mentoring Sessions

Before each one-hour session with your Mentor Coach, you’ll submit a 20-30-minute audio recording of a coaching session. You’ll receive feedback based on the ACC Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales framework, helping you identify your strengths and areas for growth.

Group Mentoring Sessions

Attend a total of 7 hours of group mentorship to engage in peer-to-peer coaching practice. In each 30-minute demo, you’ll alternate as coach and coachee. Your Mentor Coach will observe and provide both verbal and written feedback to help you make adjustments to your approach.

Self-Paced Requirements

100 Experience Hours

We’ll help you figure out how to find clients so you can apply your coaching skills during real paid or pro bono sessions. These independent experience hours are an opportunity to practice everything you’ve learned throughout your training. 

Evaluation Submission

For your final performance evaluation, you’ll submit one audio and one video recording with transcripts of a full coaching session with a real client for an assessment of your coaching skills based on ICF Core Competencies. 

Co-requisite Completion

To complete your certification, you must also demonstrate financial competency. Before you submit your final APFC® evaluation for review, you’ll provide a certificate or certification of an approved co-requisite, which can be completed simultaneously with the APFC® program:

• Accredited Financial Counselor® (AFC®)
• Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®)
• Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®)
• Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
• Certified Financial Therapist (CFT)
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

Do you have a question about a certification you hold that’s not listed? Email us at certification@sagefinancialsolutions.org to see if it meets the criteria.