As InvestmentNews first noted in March, the association has been developing the course in response to demand from member advisers who said they needed more tools and support in helping clients handle the post-retirement “decumulation” phase, according to Stephen Mitchell, acting chief operating officer of RIIA.

“Particularly, we heard from independent advisers who said they needed something that could give them an advantage over captive advisers, who often have access to these kinds of tools,” Mr. Mitchell said in an interview at RIIA's annual meeting in Boston.

The RMA course is to focus on how advisers can establish an income floor for their retiree clients and then help them with products that can contribute to an upside from that floor, Mr. Mitchell said.

Although educational materials will discuss products that advisers should have their clients consider, including annuities and mutual funds, the materials will focus more on how advisers can work with retirees by establishing a household balance sheet and determining costs, such as health care and taxes, and sources of income, such as Social Security, he said.

About 25 independent advisers, as well as a wirehouse and a mutual fund company, have already expressed interest in the program, said Mr. Mitchell, although he declined to identify them.

The course will take place over the next three months, ending with a three- to four-hour exam in December.

The course costs $175 and the exam fee is $250. Only RIIA members can enroll in the course.

Many advisers understand the need to address retirees' income planning needs, but they don't know how to go about it, attendees at the conference said.

In his keynote presentation, Bruce E. Wolfe, a managing director at Allianz Global Investors, said he recently spoke to an executive at a major broker-dealer who noted that his company wasn't set up to handle the decumulation phase of retirement.

“Over the next year, we are working with targeted institutions to help them with this,” Mr. Wolfe said in his presentation.

Advisers who don't focus on the issue of retirement income may find that their clients will begin pushing them to do so, said Marcia A. Mantell of Mantell Retirement Consulting Inc.

“So much research has been published showing that consumers need retirement income, but their advisers aren't providing [advice on how to get] it,” she says.

The problem is that many consumers don't know which questions to ask, said Katherine Roy, director of retirement analytics and advice at Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.

The RIIA hopes its course will provide advisers with a framework to help these clients, Mr. Mitchell said, adding that the issue will become even more pressing in the next few years.

“We understand that our members are on the forefront of this issue,” Mr. Mitchell said. “But one of our hopes would be to raise the level of awareness among all advisers.”