Approved IAR CE Courses

In this continuing education session, learners will review 2 Nerd’s Eye View blog articles: Why (Most) Advisors Shouldn’t Serve As Clients’ Trustees: Ethical Conflicts, Dual Fiduciary Duties, And The SEC Custody Rule and Why The SEC May No Longer Allow “Hedge Clauses” In Client Advisory Agreements (And How To Replace Them Compliantly).

In the first article, Ben Henry-Moreland examines why financial advisors should generally avoid serving as trustees for their clients' trusts due to conflicts of interest, competing fiduciary obligations, regulatory custody requirements, and potential legal liability. It also explores the circumstances under which advisors may choose to offer professional trustee services, as well as the infrastructure, compliance procedures, and risk-management practices required to do so successfully.

In the second article, Isaac Mamaysky explains why the SEC has intensified its scrutiny of hedge clauses in Investment Management Agreements (IMAs), arguing that such provisions may mislead clients and conflict with an adviser’s fiduciary duty under the Investment Advisers Act. It outlines recent enforcement actions, provides guidance for identifying problematic hedge-clause language, and offers compliant alternatives that limit liability by clearly defining the scope of the advisory relationship rather than attempting to waive client rights.

A well-designed Roth strategy can still fail at the operational level, and the damage often surfaces years later in a Form 1099-R, a Form 5498, or an IRS notice. Picking up where the Roth conversion decision leaves off, Denise Appleby walks financial advisors [SS1.1][PS1.2]through the execution errors that quietly undo an otherwise sound Roth plan.
Drawing on private letter rulings, tax court outcomes, and cases from her own practice, she examines mislabeled accounts and misdirected checks that create unintended Roth conversions, contributions made after a client's modified adjusted gross income exceeds the limit and the recurring excise tax that follows, and the 60-day and once-per-12-month rollover limits the IRS has no authority to waive. She then turns to inherited Roth accounts, where the beneficiary's classification at the date of death drives the distribution deadline, and to Roth elections made without a plan to pay the resulting income tax. The session closes with a practical checklist advisors can use to verify account coding, document instructions, and confirm that a client's Roth decision is actually protected.

This interactive course explores the psychological, emotional, and behavioral factors that affect whether clients implement financial advice. Drawing from Self-Determination Theory, the Stages of Change model, and adult learning principles, the course equips financial professionals with practical tools to foster motivation, reduce resistance, and promote follow-through. Participants will learn how to structure discovery conversations, respond to client ambivalence, and communicate in ways that enhance autonomy and internal buy-in. Through live discussion, role play, and real-world case work, advisors will build confidence in applying behavioral insight to the planning process.

Technically sound financial advice does not always produce client action. This course gives advisors a practical framework for determining why a client is not implementing a recommendation and what to address first. Participants learn to distinguish five common barriers—misunderstanding, cognitive bias, emotion, relationship conflict, and low readiness—and to recognize when more than one barrier is operating. The course then introduces a neutral, question-based method for identifying the controlling barrier: the barrier that must be addressed before the client can move forward.
The presentation emphasizes observation, inquiry, and appropriate initial responses. It does not train advisors to diagnose clients or provide mental-health treatment; instead, it strengthens the advisor’s ability to clarify, explore, sequence, and facilitate sound client decision-making within the advisor’s professional role.

In this eye-opening session, college planning experts Beth Walker and Joe Messinger will show financial advisors how even high-income, high-asset families — including business owners — can implement sophisticated strategies to optimize financial aid outcomes. Using real-world case studies, they will demonstrate how strategic income timing, asset positioning, and business planning decisions can meaningfully reduce out-of-pocket college costs, even for clients who assume they won’t qualify for aid.

Jonathan Sparling of Private 529 Plan will join Beth and Joe to present sophisticated 529 plan strategies many advisors overlook. Jonathan’s review will include the power of grandparent-owned 529 plans, how funding 529 accounts during low-income years can create meaningful state tax arbitrage opportunities, how ownership structuring can position 529s as a powerful financial aid asset strategy for divorced or remarried families, and how deliberate beneficiary “generation shifting” can extend tax-free compounding across decades. Jonathan will also explore he unique value of private 529 plans — including the ability to lock in tuition at participating private colleges, hedge tuition inflation risk, reduce reported parental assets (depending on structure), and potentially improve financial aid positioning.

In this continuing education session, learners will review 3 Nerd's Eye View blog articles: Why Don't Prospects Commit? How 'Negative Close' Can Be A Powerful Way To Help Prospects Move Forward, Five 'Self-Persuasion' Questions To Connect With Prospects Who Say They're Interested' But Aren't Moving Forward, and Fix, Fine, Flourish: A Framework To Take Clients From (Just) 'Fine' Stagnancy To Being Engaged Again. In the first article, Sydney Squires explains why prospects may be struggling to commit and how advisors can utilize the negative close strategy to close more prospects. In the second article, Dr. Meghaan Lurtz explains why prospective clients may experience ambivalence about engaging with financial advisors and how advisors can utilize self-persuasion questions to help clients feel more confident in the decision to work with an advisor. In the final article, Meghaan explains why prospective clients may experience ambivalence about engaging with financial advisors and how advisors can utilize self-persuasion questions to help clients feel more confident in the decision to work with an advisor.

The workshop addresses why families often fracture after the senior generation's death, emphasizing that the issue lies beyond legal documents and centers on relational and leadership challenges. It explores emotional dynamics, communication, and governance to support family continuity.

In this continuing education session, we review 2 blog articles: Why Pre-Commitment Strategies Can Work And 3 Steps To Implement Them With (The Right) Prospects and Motivational Interviewing Techniques To Help Clients Talk Themselves Into Implementing Advice.

In Motivational Interviewing Techniques To Help Clients Implement Advice, Derek Hagen explains how financial advisors can use motivational interviewing techniques to help clients resolve ambivalence about change and strengthen their own motivation to implement financial planning recommendations.

In Why Pre-Commitment Strategies Can Work And 3 Steps To Implement Them With (The Right) Prospects, Meghaan Lurtz describes how advisors can use structured pre-commitment strategies—such as offering free or low-cost plans alongside effective prospect screening and value-focused conversations—to improve conversion rates while avoiding burnout from working with poorly qualified prospects.

In this continuing education session, learners will review two blog articles: Why Pre-Commitment Strategies Can Work And 3 Steps To Implement Them With (The Right) Prospects and Maximizing The Step-Up In Basis By Gifting Assets Between Spouses. In the first article, Dr. Meghaan Lurtz, FBS explains the psychology behind pre-commitment strategies along with the potential pitfalls of using the pre-commitment strategy of providing a free financial plan to prospects. In the second article, Jeff Levine, CPA/PFS, CFP', AIF, CWS', MSA explains how maximizing the step-up in basis at death can be a powerful planning tool and details how advisors can help spouses to proactively plan for the step-up rules during life to maximize their benefit.