Certified Senior Advisor

Why Look for a CSA?

Here's why anyone who is a senior needs a practitioner with a CSA designation

CSAs understand how to build effective relationships with seniors because they have a broad-based knowledge of the health, social and financial issues that are important to seniors, and the dynamics of how these factors work together in seniors’ lives. 

In the financial services field alone, you could earn at least 70 different credentials. The health and social work fields have a similar array of credentials, as do other professions. These credentials teach professionals about products and professions. The CSA credential focuses exclusively on people. So, it’s not a question of whether to become a CFP or a CSA. It’s a question of and.

Professionals who choose the CSA Course and Exam option learn what's important to seniors and how – always – to keep their interests first. Whatever your specialty, you already know your business. In the CSA Course, we teach you about the people you want to do business with. The result is successful professionals and satisfied seniors.

As a CSA, we understand the financial, health, and social issues that seniors face.

These are the key factors that converge to fundamentally shape your lives. As a professional in your field, we need to understand how these factors interact so that we can add that knowledge to our existing professional expertise to the benefit of our senior clients.

As a CSA, we know how to communicate more effectively with seniors.

That means knowing everything from how to relate to seniors, to understanding why seniors make decisions, to designing senior-friendly communication. Improving communication with seniors is one of the top three reasons professionals give as why they became CSAs.

As a CSA, we recognize what's important to seniors and have better relationship building skills - essentials to earning credibility.

Make no mistake: No title, designation or credential can make someone credible. Credibility is the sum of knowledge, skilled communication, and high ethical standards. When professionals bring these things to their work, they give their clients recommendations and referrals that their clients appreciate. And that’s the single factor that defines any professional’s success.

When clients ignore our recommendations, it can mean they don’t see the need for our service. Or that we don’t fully understand their needs. Or, worse, they don’t view us with enough credibility to deserve their trust.

When they take our advice – or buy our product, or subscribe to our service - it means they respect us and value the role we play in their lives. It means they believe we understand their needs and can solve their problems.

But the key is understanding. Only if we understand what’s important to seniors will we gain the essential credibility we need.

That’s why SCSA is focused entirely on helping professionals understand the surprising complexity of what it means to be a senior today. It means looking at seniors in an entirely different way and thinking about them with a completely different mindset. It means becoming a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA)^®.