As a seasoned advisor you may be asking yourself, do I really need this designation? After all, as John Anderson, managing director of SEI Advisor Network's Practice Management Solutions told BenefitsPro in an interview last year, only a fraction of advisors (an estimated 5,500) are dedicated to the retirement market, even though thousands of baby boomers turn 65 every day. Relatively speaking, it's harder to successfully dive into the business because accounts are smaller, and, as Anderson says, it's hard for the advisor to "build any scale for lots of clients with lots of small accounts."

What's more, according to Financial Advisor Magazine, "the average income in 2010 for all Americans (using a 50-year-old boomer as a reference point) was about $62,500 gross and about $60,700 net of taxes. Approximately 70 percent of all households in the U.S. earn less than $70,000 per year."

Not exactly a gold mine opportunity. [See also: Middle-income boomer market remains untapped]

In a market with a track record for risky business, the added benefit of this particular designation may not hold water if an investor is giving it a cursory glance. Nonetheless, argues David A. Littell, co-director of the New York Life Center for Retirement Income at The American College and RICP program designer, advisors would be remiss not to invest in the education.

"When we held a retirement summit at The College about a year ago with top practitioners, we discovered some serious gaps in education among advisors," Littell says. "The feedback received was overwhelming in that even the most credentialed, most experienced practitioners felt a real need for a more formalized comprehensive education on the issue of retirement income strategies."

To find more information about the RICP designation, go to The American College's website at www.theamericancollege.edu.