This Certification program comes from the award winning Institute of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE), headquartered in San Diego, CA. The ICFE's other recognized Certification Programs are for Certified Credit Report Reviewer (CCRR) and Certified Personal Finance Instructor for The Money Instruction Book. Over 1000 professionals have earned an ICFE Certification in the since 2004. ICFE programs are accepted for continuing education credits by a wide variety of state governmental and professional organizations.
The ICFE is a recognized educator of both professionals and consumers and has been publishing widely utilized financial educational materials for over 22 years. The nonprofit ICFE was founded in 1982 by the late Loren Dunton, known around the world as the founding father of the financial planning profession - his having created the prestigious Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation and also because he founded the College For Financial Planning (Denver, CO). The ICFE is an official partner with the Department of Defense's Financial Readiness Campaign.
The ICFE has incorporated a powerful and comprehensive software program specifically designed and created for credit and identity theft risk management and resolution. Enrollees in this Certification program will be required to install and register the single user copy of the software, learn how to operate it and answer questions about it on the written examination.
The ICFE's Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist Independent Study Guide (ISG) and examination was written exclusively for this ICFE program by a recognized authority on credit and identity theft, Michael Barnett. He is a former credit and identity theft victim who struggled for over a year to resolve his own complicated and unique set of circumstances. He is a former law enforcement fraud investigator for both police and sheriffs departments, in addition he was a regional compliance officer for American Express Financial Advisors. Barnett is also the creator and developer of the CasePlanner Software, a component of this certification program. The materials are comprehensive, and written in an easy to understand and learn style. CasePlanner is the software used exclusively to help victims by the Identity Theft Resource Center. A special PowerPoint Show on a CD Rom is also part of the enrollment package. It is designed to be used with individual or group presentations about the increasing risks of credit and identity theft. Included on the CD Rom is the U. S. Department of Justice's Identity Theft Assessment Quiz.
The ISG is designed as self-study with an open book examination. The examination consists of 95 questions about the content of the ISG, the appendix and also about the CasePlanner Software. There 76 correct answers (80%) are required for a passing grade and award of the Gold Sealed ICFE Certificate, which is suitable for framing.