Advanced Planning Educational Group

What Advanced Planning Educational Group does

Advanced Planning Educational Group, Inc. (APEG) is a private Michigan-incorporated educational services firm that delivers comprehensive financial planning training to financial advisors, insurance professionals, attorneys, and accountants. Founded in 2008 by Jeffrey R. Hoenle (CEO), Ruth Flynn Raftery (President), and Donald M. Denstaedt (Vice President) — all holders of advanced designations including CFP, JD, CPA, and AEP — the company operates as a specialized continuing education and talent development provider rather than a general-purpose training marketplace.

APEG's product portfolio is built around three pillars delivered via the third-party Teachable learning management system: (1) self-study courses including the 21+ contact-hour Foundations of Financial Planning ($895) and the ~15-hour Financial Planner's Pathway ($895), supplemented by modules such as Income Tax ($295); (2) live workshops including the Foundations Workshop (1-2 day in-person intensives plus 4-26 weeks of customized virtual sessions) and Mastermind Round Table peer sessions; and (3) turnkey business development assets, notably the Seminar-in-a-Box series of white-labeled client-event toolkits ($495-$895). A recurring Monthly Planner Series subscription ($49/month or $495/year) provides monthly expert-led webinars that yield 1.0 CFP CE credit per session. Proprietary differentiation is concentrated in the G.O.A.L.S. Planning Support Tools — custom-branded First Meeting Booklet, Initial Interview, Annual Review, and Goal Identifier materials sold under limited lifetime license — and an employer performance-tracking dashboard that surfaces exam results to sponsoring firms.

The business model blends one-time course and toolkit licenses, recurring subscription revenue, and professional-services workshop fees. APEG employs a dual-channel go-to-market: direct self-serve purchase via aplegcommunity.com (with global reach nominally claimed) and an institutional employer/sponsor channel in which financial advisory firms fund advisor training and receive aggregated performance data. The customer base is segmented across financial advisory firms (primary, B2B), individual financial advisors (primary, B2C), and investment/insurance professionals transitioning to fee-based planning. No external capital, M&A, or AI/ML capabilities are disclosed; the firm operates with 1-10 employees and founder-led ownership.

Name

Advanced Planning Educational Group

Legal name

Advanced Planning Educational Group, Inc.

Website

https://apegcommunity.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Advanced Planning Educational Group is a private Michigan-based educational firm delivering comprehensive financial planning training, CFP continuing education, and turnkey client-event toolkits to financial advisors and the advisory firms that employ them.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Financial Advisor Education & Training

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Financial Services & Insurance (FINRA, CFP, IAR, Insurance CE) (EDAAALAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Financial Planning Tools & Financial Coaching (Goal Setting, Apps, Advisors) (EDAAAJAN)

Keywords

• Financial advisor education
• Continuing education
• Financial planning training
• Advisor development
• Professional education

Headquarters

HQ city

Sterling Heights

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Self-Study Course Sales: One-time purchases of self-paced online courses including Foundations of Financial Planning ($895), Financial Planner's Pathway ($895), and specialized modules like Income Tax ($295). Students receive 6-months from enrollment to complete courses.
2. Monthly Planner Series Subscription: Recurring monthly subscription providing access to expert-led webinar sessions with 1.0 CFP CE credit per live session. Includes on-demand library of recorded sessions. Options: $49/month (month-to-month) or $495/year (two months free).
3. Seminar-in-a-Box Toolkits: One-time license purchases for turnkey client event packages. Priced at $495-$895 per seminar toolkit, these include slide decks, speaker notes, marketing materials, and training videos. Marketed as white-labeled solutions for client-facing presentations.
4. Workshop Facilitation: Live intensive workshop programs (1-2 day in-person events) followed by customized virtual sessions spanning 4-26 weeks. Workshops include Foundations Workshop and Financial Planner's Pathway programs, with implementation tools and supplemental video content.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

APEG sells continuing education and professional development programs for financial advisors, including self-study courses (Foundations of Financial Planning, Financial Planner's Pathway), a monthly webinar subscription (Monthly Planner Series), live/virtual workshops, and turnkey Seminar-in-a-Box toolkits for advisors to host client-facing events. The offerings combine technical financial planning education across estate, tax, risk management, retirement, and investment planning with client engagement tools and CFP continuing education credits.

Product overview

APEG is an educational platform for financial advisors offering a multi-format learning ecosystem. The core offerings include two primary self-study courses (Foundations of Financial Planning at 21+ hours and Financial Planner's Pathway at 15 hours), the Monthly Planner Series subscription for ongoing education, and Seminar-in-a-Box packages for client events. Workshops provide in-person and virtual intensive training options. The product portfolio also includes over 40 expert insight webinars covering specialized topics. All offerings are designed to help financial firms recruit, develop, and retain advisors at all career levels.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Foundations of Financial Planning: A 21-contact hour, on-demand self-study course covering the core pillars of comprehensive financial planning including estate planning, tax planning, risk management, retirement planning, and investment planning.
• Financial Planner's Pathway
• Monthly Planner Series
• Seminar-in-a-Box

Products and services

• Foundations of Financial Planning

Quantifiable outcome

• 21+ Contact Hours of education through Foundations course
• +3 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Financial Advisory Firms (Employer/Sponsor Relationships)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFinancial advisory firms serve as intermediaries who fund or arrange APEG course access for their advisor employees. With student permission, sponsoring employers can access examination scores and completion data to track training effectiveness and identify knowledge gaps within their teams. This creates a B2B2C distribution model where firms are the paying customer while individual advisors are the end users.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Kaplan Professional: Kaplan Professional provides continuing education, designations, and licensing prep for financial advisors, accountants, and insurance professionals. It directly competes with APEG's self-study and CFP CE offerings at significantly larger scale.
• American College of Financial Services: The American College offers CLU, ChFC, CFP, and other financial-services designations and CE programs for financial professionals. It is one of the largest and most established peers to APEG's comprehensive planning curriculum and advisor training tracks.
• Dalton Education: Dalton Education is a CFP Board-registered CE provider offering self-study and live CE courses for financial advisors. Its product set and target buyer closely match APEG's self-study and webinar-based CE catalog.
• fi360 (Broadridge): fi360, now part of Broadridge, delivers fiduciary-focused training, designations (AIF, AIFA), and CE for financial advisors. It competes with APEG for the same advisor L&D budgets, particularly around practice management and planning frameworks.
• CFP Board Center for Financial Planning: The CFP Board runs its own CE search and offers practitioner resources and approved CE listings. As the regulator-cum-provider of the certification ecosystem that APEG's courses feed into, it is a structural peer and ecosystem gatekeeper.
• Money Education: Money Education produces financial literacy and personal finance training content, including materials targeted at financial professionals and consumers. It overlaps with APEG's financial planning curriculum in topic coverage and audience.
• Financial Planning Association (FPA): FPA is a membership organization offering CE, practice management resources, and events for financial planners. It is a comparable channel for advisor CE and practice development content that APEG competes against for member-mindshare.
• Insured Retirement Institute (IRI): IRI provides education, certifications, and advocacy for the retirement income industry, serving many of the same insurance and financial professionals that APEG targets. It is a direct peer for CE and designation content aimed at retirement-focused advisors.

Emerging players

• Kingdom Advisors: Kingdom Advisors offers a faith-based financial planning certification and training curriculum for advisors. It is a smaller, segment-focused peer that overlaps with APEG's planning-led, advisor-development positioning.
• Ed Slott and Company: Ed Slott and Company delivers tax-focused CE workshops and advisor training, particularly around IRAs and retirement planning. It is a topic-specialized peer competing for the same advisor CE dollars that fund APEG's Monthly Planner Series.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/APEG_inc
• Facebookfacebook.com/APEGCommunity

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Advanced Planning Educational Group