RALEIGH -- The growing legions of aging baby boomers will increase demand for advice on health, financial and social needs, experts say. And people with letters such as CSA after their names stand ready to guide them.
CSA stands for "certified senior advisor," a designation offered by the Society for Certified Senior Advisors, a for-profit group located in Denver that has awarded it to more than 20,000 people.
In fact, for about $1,600 and a 3-1/2 day training course, you, too, can take a test to become a CSA. Or you can take an online version. If you're pretty sure you know your stuff about aging, you can just take the multiple-choice CSA exam at a test site for $550.
Be wary, though, warns John Maron, director of investor education program in the N.C. Secretary of State's securities division.
"You just can't rely on titles or designations or these fancy little letters," Maron said. "With M.D.s or J.D.s or CPAs, you know what you're dealing with. Otherwise, you have to do due diligence."
Under new rules passed by the legislature last year, investment advisers must follow standards set up by national securities and insurance regulators.
The rules prevent misleading consumers with titles using terms such as "senior," "retirement" or "elder" combined with words such as "certified," "registered," "chartered," "advisor" and the like.
The Society of Certified Senior Advisors' code of ethics tells its members that they must inform consumers, before any transaction, that the "CSA designation alone does not imply expertise in financial, health or social matters."
Society President Ed Pittcock said the company's standard is to be forthright. "We would never want to mislead anyone," Pittcock said in an interview.
In March, the state court of appeals upheld a Wilson County jury's 2008 finding that James L. "Ripp" Rainey, identified as a Certified Senior Advisor in court documents, was liable for selling unregistered securities, common law fraud, securities fraud, and punitive damages for taking part in a Ponzi scheme involving mobile billboards.
"According to plaintiffs, they were never given any of the [company] investment documentation to read; defendant explained everything to them, filled out their paperwork in his own handwriting, and told them what they were signing," the appeals court ruling said. "Defendant did not tell plaintiffs that he was receiving a 16-20% commission on their investments."
Professional standards
Standards for more widely recognized designations are much more intensive. In North Carolina, even to take the exams to become a certified public accountant, a candidate must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited university that includes or is supplemented by 30 semester hours in accounting. Then, candidates must pass four tests, totaling 14 hours.
Maron, at the Secretary of State's office, said people with questions about professionals in the financial or insurance industry can call the appropriate state department to check credentials.
Rep. Michael Wray, a Gaston Democrat, was a co-sponsor of the legislation that gave the state insurance department authority to adopt the National Association of Insurance Commissioners standards on "senior-specific" certifications and professional designations in the sale of life insurance or annuity products. The legislation also adopted similar standards passed by the North American Securities Administrators Association.
"If you have enough acronyms behind someone's name on a business card, it starts implying that the person is highly skilled," said Dave Massey, deputy securities administrator of the N.C. Securities Division. "Some of them are legitimate, and some of them are illusory."
A Wake County couple, Dan and Stephanie Gregory, obtained the CSA certification recently as they started a franchise of a California-based company called Always Best Care Senior Services. Before starting their business, which provides in-home aides and assesses and refers older people to long-term care, the Gregorys had no previous professional experience involving care of older people.
"The health, financial and social needs of seniors are different and more complicated than those of any other age group," Stephanie Gregory said in promotional materials, adding that the association "keeps professionals from a wide variety of fields abreast of all these issues by providing education, training, support and communication resources to those of us dedicated to serving seniors."
'A level of competency'
In an interview, Dan Gregory said he and his wife were moved to enter the senior services business because of personal experiences in their families and that each went through 65 hours of training before becoming CSAs.
They had sold a high-tech training company called Blueline Simulations to a partner and paid to become franchisees of Always Best Care Solutions, which lists expertise in areas including dementia care, housing referral and emergency response systems on its website.
"What the CSA [training] does is provides a level of competency, so at least we've got a common language on the senior population and how they want to be served," Dan Gregory said. " ... We have been able to amass a baseline of industry knowledge fairly quickly."
The couple earns fees for referrals of families to long-term care facilities. The process involves an initial assessment, by phone or in person, then the recommendation of locations and accompanying clients to possible placements, Gregory said.
Bill Lamb, associate director for public service at the UNC Institute on Aging, said the dozens of professional designations that are not state-licensed can be confusing to people with questions about aging relatives.
"It is a function of 'Says who?' and the consumer's having to figure all of that stuff out," Lamb said.
