An advisor with a big focus and interest in college funding has started sharing his knowledge and tools with others in the profession.

Earlier this month, Joe Messinger, CFP, co-founder and director of college planning for Capstone Wealth Partners, a fee-only RIA firm based in Dublin, Ohio, launched Capstone College Partners, an advisor resource site. Capstone College Partners offers free videos and other information to advisors who sign up. Its first class is scheduled to run on March 2.

“As a financial advisor community, we’ve never served clients well because we’ve never been trained on this topic,” Messinger tells Financial Advisor. “We don’t know how school selection and the financial aid policies of schools impact families.” He’s “on a mission,” he says, “to raise the bar in college funding advice and end the student loan crisis one family at a time.”

In addition to offering education and training that “will demystify the financial aid process,” he says, Capstone College Partners will also provide coaching for advisors to show them how to integrate college, retirement, investments and tax planning.

Messinger launched Capstone Wealth Partners in 2009 with the intent of focusing on the college funding side of comprehensive financial planning. That’s where he spends the majority of his time. His partner focuses on investments and their clients’ other financial planning needs.

Messinger has seen 200 to 300 families through his office and also runs college-funding workshops and group sessions in the community. He writes a blog with actionable ideas for college-bound families that can be found on Capstone Wealth Partners’ Web site.

“The way we shop for college is all wrong,” says Messinger, who penned the cover story, on college funding, in the February issue of the Financial Planning Association’s Journal of Financial Planning. Saving for college is only part of the picture. Families also need to learn strategies to reduce the cost of college, he says.

Messinger developed a three-step process, called College Pre-Approval, that doesn’t require special software. Basically, he helps families determine their available personal resources, establish a maximum student loan amount and shop for schools within their budget. And yes, families should consider how their children plan to use their degree before determining how much to fork over for it, he says.

Working with a counselor can help teens get an idea of a broad discipline that might suit them, adds Messinger, who switched from pre-med to a hospitality management major at Penn State University and worked briefly as a chef before stumbling into financial services at the suggestion of a friend.

College funding also offers a lot of opportunities for client development. “Every family with a junior in high school knows 400 other families,” he says. Of course, that number is smaller in many communities, but the point is well taken.

Many financial advisors have sought out the Certified College Planning Specialist (CCPS) designation from the Association of Certified College Planning Specialists (ACCPS). The “Find a CCPS” function on ACCPS’s Web site lists more than 600 specialists, but a number of names come up as inactive or indicate the user hasn’t confirmed an email address or account.