Investors often perceive their returns as a purely quantitative result of markets, risk, timing, or expertise. But emotions and behaviors can play an equally important role in performance. This presentation reviews the history and principles of behavioral psychology and explores the influence of emotion on decision-making. Using real life examples, we compare and contrast an investor’s narrative to that of a speculator and offer a framework for bridging behavioral finance and market efficiency. The presentation cites academic research and employs live audience-participation experiments to help attendees understand how people perceive investments and improve their thinking about wealth and the future. It will provide financial professionals with a framework for integrating these ideas into their investment plans.
The financial planning industry is on the front lines of the largest wealth transfer in history. Over the coming decades, trillions of dollars will move to the next generation through inheritance, business transitions, and unexpected life events. Yet while advisors are highly trained in technical strategy, many have received little guidance on how to support clients through the emotional and psychological realities that come with receiving wealth.
And when that piece is missing, something predictable happens: Clients hesitate. They disengage. They delay decisions or make choices that don’t align with the plan.
Because in moments of sudden wealth, financial decisions aren't just logical, they're deeply emotional.
In this powerful and personal keynote, Marin Laukka blends financial psychology expertise with firsthand experience navigating sudden wealth after a house fire and unexpected financial windfall. Marin introduces three common emotional experiences that shape client behavior, trust, and follow-through, then shares practical language and tools to better support clients through their pivotal moments.
This session highlights the “missing piece” in financial planning to help advisors lead not just with strategy, but with a deeper understanding of the human experience of wealth. By integrating emotional intelligence with financial expertise, advisors will strengthen relationships, improve outcomes, and stand out in an increasingly commoditized industry.
Most financial planners have only heard two versions of the reverse mortgage story — the sales pitch that glosses over the costs, and the outdated warning that treats it as a last resort for the desperate. Neither one is useful to a planner trying to serve a client well. This webinar, led by three reverse mortgage experts NAD FINANCIAL PLANNERS, gives advisors the honest, three-part framework instead: how the product actually works today, the red flags that should end the conversation before an application starts, and the specific planning scenarios — backed by peer-reviewed research — where a reverse mortgage earns a real place in a retirement plan.
Attendees will see the mechanics that matter for client conversations: today's HECM lending limits, the non-recourse protection that caps family risk at $0 regardless of home value, and the standby line of credit that grows whether or not the home appreciates — a feature that Harold Evensky recommended advisors use for mitigating sequence-of-return risk. Financial planners will join to share multiple examples of how their clients have used a reverse mortgage. Plus, there will be a candid discussion of when a reverse mortgage does NOT work.
The Rise of AI - Implications for Portfolio Strategies and the Adviser Value Proposition
State-sponsored retirement programs—often referred to as auto-IRA programs—are rapidly expanding across the country. And for financial advisors, they represent a meaningful opportunity to help individuals along their retirement savings journey and achieve financial security.
In this timely webinar, two leading experts will break down what’s happening—and what it means for your practice.
Angela Antonelli, Executive Director of the Center for Retirement Initiatives at Georgetown University, will provide a comprehensive overview of the state-run retirement landscape, including how auto-IRA programs work, which states have active mandates, and where expansion is headed next.
Peter Thompson of Commonwealth Savers will then take a deeper dive into RetirePath, one of the newer state-facilitated programs, and explain how it is evolving as it rolls out to more businesses later this year.
Together, they will help you understand:
1. How auto-IRA programs are reshaping the small business retirement market
2. Which employers are impacted—and when
3. Where advisors can still add value (and where they may be disintermediated)
4. How programs like RetirePath actually function in practice
5. Strategic ways to position yourself as a solution—not a substitute
As more states implement mandates and enforcement ramps up, advisors who understand this landscape will be better equipped to protect existing relationships, identify new opportunities, and guide clients with confidence. If you work with small business owners—or plan to—this is a conversation you can’t afford to miss.
When a client retires, an IAR is usually paid only if the client moves her money. Assets left in a former employer’s plan generate no advisory fee; assets rolled into an IRA the IAR manages generate one for decades. The decision is large, hard to reverse, and made by a client who has little experience and limited ability to recover from a mistake. That combination makes rollover and retirement income advice one of the most ethically demanding parts of an IAR’s work.
This course examines that situation as a question of professional ethics. It explains why the duties of care and loyalty exist and what they require before, during, and after a rollover recommendation. It covers the conflicts that arise from asset-based fees, including the less-noticed conflicts that discourage annuities, Social Security delay, and spending. It addresses disclosure a client can use, steps an IAR and a firm can take to reduce a conflict’s influence, the added care owed to vulnerable clients, and honest communication about projections, guarantees, and the limits of an adviser’s knowledge. Four case studies ask the IAR to apply judgment where more than one response could be defended.
Throughout, the course asks three questions drawn from NASAA’s guidance on ethics content: why the duty exists, how the IAR’s conduct affects the client, and how to apply judgment when the facts are unclear. A companion Products and Practice course, From Savings to Income: Retirement Income and Rollover Recommendations, covers the products, tax rules, and mechanics. The two courses do not repeat each other.
IRA rollover recommendations are among the most common decisions financial advisors help clients make—and they can also present significant fiduciary and compliance considerations. In this session, securities attorney Michelle Atlas-Quinn will provide an in-depth look at how financial professionals can apply their fiduciary duty when advising clients on whether to remain in an employer plan, roll assets to another employer plan or IRA, or take a distribution.
Michelle will explain the key distinctions between financial advice and financial education, the conflicts of interest that can arise in rollover recommendations, and a practical seven-step Duty of Care process for evaluating a client’s alternatives. Through real-world scenarios and case studies, she’ll explore how advisors should evaluate costs, services, investment options, creditor protection, tax considerations, and client-specific needs—and why cost should be an important factor, but never the only factor.
The session will also examine documentation best practices, compensation-related conflicts, directed rollover requests, and common compliance pitfalls. Advisors will leave with a practical framework for making and documenting rollover recommendations that are client-specific, well-supported, and consistent with their fiduciary responsibilities.
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The State of Social Security System, Alternative Minimum Tax Planning after TCJA Sunset, and 'Conflict-Free' Advice
This month, we review October blog articles. This quiz includes the following articles: Helping Nervous Clients Understand The (True) State Of The Social Security System And What It Means For Their Retirement, Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) Planning After TCJA Sunset: Preparing Clients To (Re)Encounter AMT After 2025, and Why Advertising 'Conflict-Free' Advice Could Violate The SEC's Marketing Rule.
This course provides financial professionals with a data-driven overview of today’s college admissions landscape, including key trends in selectivity, testing policies, and application strategies. Participants will learn how these changes impact planning considerations and how to incorporate admissions insights into more effective client conversations around education and financial planning.