The NAOI is the market's premier provider of comprehensive and objective investor education. Since the NAOI was formed in 1997 we have trained thousands of individuals how to become confident investors via online courses, published books and in the college classroom.

This page discusses how including NAOI education books or courses with your products and services will provide you with a massive competitive advantage in a crowded field.

The Need for Investor Education Is Growing

The NAOI annually interacts with hundreds of average people with money to invest. We know that most are dangerously under-educated in the field of investing. So most simply entrust their financial security to a third party advisor who is also a salesperson. They simply accept the investing recommendations and hope for the best. As a result, most people today hold portfolios that provide mediocre returns, with excessive risk and expenses that do not justify the value added. 

One would think that education related to such an important life-skill as understanding how to invest would be taught at all levels of academia and in every institution of higher-learning. Well, it’s not. The academic world is strangely absent in the field of serious investor education.

In 2008 we saw the consequences of this sad state of affairs when millions of individuals lost 50% and more of their wealth during the market crash of that year. People were told to simply hold their portfolios as their value was slowly eroded.

Much of this problem is due to the fact that portfolios are designed today using Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) methods that advocate a buy-and-hold management strategy. Of course this was a devastating strategy during the 2008 crash. That is why the NAOI created Dynamic Investment Theory (DIT) that you can learn about on this site at this link.

But the other problem is the lack of education. People who understood the tools available to them in 2008, such as Stop Loss Orders, were able to avoid the massive loss of wealth and recover quickly. Those that simply trusted an advisor, took the full hit the “experts” likely won't tell you about such things as automatic sell orders. The NAOI is dedicated to solving this problem with our Investor Education Courses and Programs as discussed on this Web page and in this section of the site.

What Works and What Doesn't

As mentioned above, the NAOI has been working with and teaching individuals how to invest for over two decades. We know what works and what doesn't.

Among the things that our students tell us don't work are Webinars, "Help" sections on investing sites, books with with no links to online resources, etc.

What DOES work is a structured learning program like you would receive in a college classroom. People want a "book" that they can study. They want online resources that make what they learn actionable. They need reinforcement of what they learn via testing. And they need motivation to complete the course in the form of awards such as the “NAOI Individual Investor Certification” certificate as described at this link. This is what the NAOI provides. And we are the ONLY organization that provides it.

NAOI Consulting and the Process

If your organization sells and investing related product to the public you will gain a massive competitive advantage of offering an NAOI-designed Study Course to go with it. Based on 20 years of public feedback we can almost guarantee you that by doing so your sales will increase exponentially.

To do this you should consider an NAOI Consulting Contract. Here are the action steps that it will include:

• We will first study and understand your product/service completely

• We will study the demographics and investing experience level of your target audience

• We will work with you to understand your goals for an Education Resource

• We will match your needs with content from our extensive investing Knowledge Base

• We will then create a Customized Education Program that will give your target audience both the knowledge and the confidence to take maximum advantage of your offerings

We don't need to "start from scratch" with most Study Programs. We own the world's largest, and "cleanest", investing knowledge base in the industry as discussed. This means lower cost and less time will be needed to create a significant education asset for your organization.

Examples of NAOI Investor Education Products

If you offer an investing product or service, you can enhance its value significantly by providing with your offerings a customized education booklet that will enable your clients to maximize their value. Below are a few examples. And each can be customized to teach the specific use of your products / services.

Learning Investing Basics

This book teaches people with little to no experience the basic elements of investing. And this is MOST people. It may be surprising to those in the financial industry that a large majority of people don't understand what stocks and bonds are. Even more don't know what a mutual fund is. And almost nobody has any idea what an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is.

This book assumes nothing and teaches everything that an individual needs to be conversant in the basics of investing. This is a critical part of any study course designed to enable people to use your investing product or service. And throughout this course we will use your products and/or services in all examples as appropriate.

Defining and Creating Your Unique Financial Plan

The second book is optional. Depending on your product/service, you may also want to teach your prospects/customers the basics of Financial Planning. The NAOI has this one on the shelf, ready to go as well.

We found in our classes that far too many people were not aware of their financial status, how much they needed to save to meet certain financial goals or how to set up a budget.

This book shows them how to do all of this and more. Students will first define their goals and then formulate a detailed plan for meeting it, with investing being one element. When a student finishes this book/course they will have a financial plan in place and a structured approach for reaching the goals they want to achieve in life.

This book is supplemented by the NAOI Financial Calculators and Worksheets described on this page.

A Study Course Customized for Your Product or Service

Here is where NAOI consulting comes into play.

As mentioned above via an Education Partnership or Consulting Agreement we will study your offerings and create create a Study Course for their use. This will not be just a generic investing book, it will be an interactive “user’s manual” that will not only teach readers basic investing principles but also how to use your products/services to become more confident and successful investors.

This is the benefit that will allow you to capture more clients, increase revenues and hold a significant competitive advantage in a crowded field.

Summary - The Advantage of Providing Compete Investing Solutions

Show your prospects and customers that you are more than a producer of investment products and investing services. Show them that you are a provider of complete investing solutions by providing quality education courses as well.

From decades of working with individual investors, we know that this approach will give you a massive competitive advantage in a very crowded field. And a Partnership with the NAOI will show the market that you are committed to their investing success.

The ROI Will Be Incredible

In our investing classes we often discuss specific investing products and investing service with our students. We bring into class advertisements from financial advisors, online brokers, portfolio managers, investing Web sites, etc. It is the best focus group environment in the industry. We find that the more complex a product or service offering is, the less our students like it - UNLESS it comes with a companion study course. Most organizations don't offer this benefit so students don't give them a second look. But by almost unanimous vote, if a real Study Course was available, not an online help section or a Webinar, they would be more likely to purchase your offerings than those of your competitors.

Our conclusion based on 20+ years of teaching is that by enhancing your investing product / service with a structured Study Course of the type that the NAOI is proposing will multiply your sales exponentially. And because the costs of the NAOI creating such a course are extremely reasonable the Return on Investment for doing so will be off-the-charts.

Who Will Benefit the Most?

Any organization that sells an investing-related product or service needs to consider enhancing it with an NAOI Study Program. And any organization who offers a retirement plan benefit to their employees also needs to accompany it with an NAOI Study Program. Here are just a few examples:

Investment Advisors - This is a very crowded field. To NAOI students we have surveyed they all look alike. What would make them chose one over another? An objective NAOI Study Course or Program. If you are a financial advisor and your competitors offer NAOI education and you don't, they win - you lose.

Online Brokers - You offer a much needed service to the public. But most of the millions of potential customers are intimidated by what you offer. Sometimes its just too overwhelming. An NAOI Study Program will calm their fears by giving them the confidence to start slow and expand, following the course structure. Again, this is a massive competitive advantage.

401K Providers - Many students who attend NAOI classes do so because they simply don't know what to do with the 401k Plan offered by their employer. Someone needs to educate these people NOW. And it should be salespeople. Employers - give all of your employees an NAOI Study Program as described above. They will signup and take advantage of this benefit in droves. Financial organizations that offer 401k Plans - include an NAOI Study Program in your offering. If you don't a competitor will and you will lose business.

Academia - I have always found in strange that for such an important life-skill as investing, academia is virtually absent. Where have any of us been offered, at any level of our education career, an objective and comprehensive course of study in how to invest? The answer is “nowhere”. The NAOI solves this problem We have been teaching people how to invest for close to two decades. We have an investing study curricula that empowers individuals to invest with confidence via education, innovation and the use of online resources. We can make this education asset available to any academic institution for use either in the classroom or online. This is a course of study that will be over-subscribed every time it is offered.

Contact Us; Let’s Get Started

To discuss an NAOI Education Consulting Agreement contact NAOI President Leland Hevner via email at LHevner@naoi.org as soon as possible. Don't let a competitor beat you to the punch.