The Advanced Retirement Planning Institute (ARPI) was founded on a simple conviction: financial professionals deserve rigorous, expert-built credentials — and the tools to stay current in the most complex regulatory landscape their clients face.
We empower financial professionals to become authoritative advisors on Social Security, Medicare, and end-of-life planning — the most complex and consequential financial decisions their clients will ever face.
By combining rigorous, expert-built curriculum with AI-powered knowledge retrieval and continuous regulatory updates, ARPI ensures advisors have both the credential and the tools to deliver confident, accurate guidance — year after year.
Marc Kiner and Jim Blair — a CPA with 40 years of experience and a 35-year SSA veteran — founded the National Social Security Advisor (NSSA®) program. It was the first professional certification in the country dedicated to Social Security strategy.
Social Security Professionals (SSP) acquired the NSSA program, with Jason Stanley taking the helm as Managing Director. The new leadership team brought upgraded technology, a modernized curriculum, and a broader vision for professional education.
ARPI acquired the IRMAA Certified Planner (IRMAACP™) designation, recognizing that Social Security and Medicare are inseparable for retirement planning clients. For the first time, advisors could earn both credentials under one roof.
With the launch of the Certified End-of-Life Planner (CELP®) designation and the rebrand to the Advanced Retirement Planning Institute, ARPI became the first organization to credential advisors across the full arc of retirement benefits planning.
A team of dedicated professionals with deep expertise in Social Security, Medicare, financial advising, and professional education.
Jason is a business development and strategy leader whose work has consistently lived at the intersection of technology, brand, and marketing. His background spans creative direction, agency leadership, digital transformation, and CMO work — always with the same focus: building the systems, platforms, and infrastructure that let organizations grow with intention. He completed AI and business strategy coursework at MIT Sloan School of Management in 2023, work that now informs how he thinks about the role of artificial intelligence in modern business development and member experience. At ARPI, he leads strategy, technology, marketing, and member experience — designing the growth and operational frameworks that are expanding the reach of professional certification in retirement income planning.
Todd brings nearly a decade of experience as VP of Separate Account Sales at T. Rowe Price, working directly with annuity wholesalers at major carriers across the country. That front-line wholesaler experience — understanding precisely how advisors think about annuity products alongside Medicare and income planning — is what he brings to the IRMAACP™ curriculum at ARPI, where he designs and delivers the certification course and presents Medicare and Social Security strategy to wholesaler teams and advisor audiences nationwide.
Cindi holds one of the deeper credential stacks in retirement planning — CFP®, ChFC®, RICP®, CRPC®, ABFP®, and NSSA® — backed by 33 years at TruStage consulting credit union investment programs and advisors nationwide on IRA strategy, Social Security, and Medicare planning. A national speaker at industry conferences and advisor events, she launched CKH Consulting LLC in 2025 before joining ARPI to oversee the NSSA® curriculum and continuing education.
With 25 years spanning higher education, workforce development, and technology, CiCi specializes in building the partnerships and revenue structures that move organizations into new markets. A former Kaplan executive turned fractional VP through Reidy & Associates LLC, she chairs two national education-access committees and has led ventures into institutional and government markets. At ARPI, she leads institutional partnership development and strategic growth.
Richard brings a 50-year track record of building, scaling, and exiting education and healthcare companies. He founded the National Institute for Paralegal Arts and Sciences, sold it to Kaplan Inc., and helped grow Kaplan University into one of the largest online higher-education institutions in the US as SVP of Marketing and Sales. He founded Education Connection, co-founded Revolve Capital (managing $100M+ in mortgage notes annually), and served on the board of Digital Media Solutions through its 2020 NYSE listing.
Marc is a licensed CPA with over 40 years of experience and advanced degrees in Accounting, Finance, and Tax from the University of Cincinnati. Since 2010 he has run a Social Security consulting and education practice focused on helping individuals maximize their benefits and training advisors across the country to do the same. He co-founded the NSSA® program in 2013 and has served as course developer and instructor ever since — building the curriculum around the intersection of tax strategy and Social Security planning that most credential programs never address.
Jim brought 34½ years inside the Social Security Administration to the founding of NSSA®. His SSA career began as a Service Representative, progressed through Claims Representative and Operations Supervisor, and culminated as District Manager of the Piqua, Ohio office — one of the few practitioners who has sat on both sides of every Social Security decision. He holds a BS in Administrative Management from the University of Cincinnati. Jim co-founded the NSSA® program in 2013 to give financial advisors the ground-level regulatory fluency he earned across nearly four decades at the agency.
Together, Marc Kiner and Jim Blair brought over 80 years of combined expertise in Social Security, tax, and financial advising. Their decision to build the NSSA® certification program grounded it in the kind of real-world, regulatory precision that academic programs rarely achieve. Their founding vision remains the backbone of every credential ARPI offers today.
