Approved IAR CE Courses

Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) under IRC Section 1202 offers significant tax advantages to founders, investors, and advisors who understand how to navigate its requirements. Enhanced by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), these benefits can translate into meaningful tax savings, but only if specific qualifications are met. In this session, expert Lisa Fetherngill will explore the requirements to qualify for QSBS treatment, highlight potential pitfalls and nuances, and review both tax and non-tax advantages of QSBS status. Attendees will also discover advanced planning opportunities, including strategies to combine QSBS treatment with gifting and other techniques to maximize benefits for clients.

Financial advisors often work with clients who are nearing or in retirement, and healthcare is one of the most pressing concerns for people as they approach retirement age and beyond. But although it's important to make sure the numbers all add up and that clients have the resources to pay for healthcare costs throughout their retirement, what's even more important (but often forgotten) is that they - and the people who might become responsible for caring for them - are aligned on their healthcare goals, so they can maintain their desired quality of life even when health issues arise.Join Carolyn McClanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners, at the October Kitces Monthly Webinar, where she will discuss the real-life challenges faced by planners and their clients around meeting healthcare needs in retirement, including pre-planning before a medical event occurs to ensure the client's goals are communicated with and supported by family and health care providers, deciding who will provide care (be it family members, friends, or professional help) and how they will be paid, and learning what government assistance programs may be available to help with the cost of care.

In this continuing education session, learners will review 2 Nerd's Eye View articles: Business Buy-Sell Agreements In The Wake of Connelly V. IRS: Ensuring Clients' Business Succession Plans Don't Create Future Estate Tax Issues and Gifting Without The Headache: Tax-Efficient Strategies To Stay Under Gift Reporting Limits. In the first article, advisors will review the mechanics of buy-sell agreements, including the pros and cons of cross-purchase versus entity-purchase agreements, and then delve into the impacts of the Supreme Court's decisions in Connelly V. IRS. In the second article, David Haughton, JD, CPWA' provides an overview of gifting, including what gifts result in taxation or the necessity of gift tax reporting. Strategies to structure gifts to not use the lifetime gift and estate tax exemption or the annual exclusion are also discussed.

If you spend any time on the internet or watching the news, you will be bombarded with doom and gloom. In this webinar, Michael Finke makes the case for optimism. In his research, Michael has found that optimism helps people to invest more in the present with expectations of payoffs in the future in the realms of health, relationships, and personal finances, setting clients up with a higher chance of a happier retirement. Additionally, optimism can help clients be resilient when faced with inevitable setbacks in life and in their investments. However, overoptimism can negatively affect financial behaviors like risk tolerance. Finke uses this research to explain how advisors can work best with optimistic clients and encourage optimism in clients that tend to have a more pessimistic outlook.

The compliance regulations that RIAs are subject to can and do evolve over time, as markets and platforms change, and regulators update their own rules accordingly. In this session, compliance attorney Chris Stanley will address the latest changes in regulations for RIAs and their IARs, covering five critical topics: FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Reporting, FTC Non-Competes, SEC Marketing Rule Enforcement Actions, Custody Rule Triggers and Reporting, and the SEC's Reg S-P Rule Amendments, to help financial advisors ensure they stay compliant with the evolving regulatory landscape.

Financial advisors will inevitably work with clients facing turbulence related to their finances, whether it is a personal job loss or stress about a market downturn. In these situations, financial advisors might attempt to act as rationally as possible and encourage their clients to do the same. However, because the human brain is not wired to move between stress and rationality quickly, such an approach could backfire, and the client could feel as though their concerns are not being heard by their advisor.At this Kitces Monthly Webinar, join licensed clinical psychologist Barbara Kay as she discusses the neuroscience of anxiety, techniques advisors can use to communicate with a client facing stress, and potential pitfalls to avoid when working with clients during turbulent times.

This month we review October blog articles. This quiz includes the following articles: A Guide To Conducting And Documenting An Annual Compliance Review Under New SEC Amendment and Crafting An Annual Compliance Calendar For A (Solo) RIA: Staying On Top Of Compliance Tasks While Serving Clients.

In this session, advisors will gain a comprehensive understanding of the SEC Marketing Rule (Rule 206(4)-1) and how to apply it to create effective, compliant marketing strategies. Compliance experts Joseph Antonakakis and Jeffrey Lang with discuss the foundational aspects of the Marketing Rule, including its history, scope, and key changes from prior regulations. Additionally, advisors will learn how to navigate complex requirements surrounding testimonials, endorsements, third-party ratings, and rankings, while understanding the necessary disclosures, accuracy standards, and best practices for each. By the end of the session, advisors will be equipped with practical strategies for balancing compliance with creativity, enabling them to enhance their marketing efforts while adhering to regulatory expectations and upholding their ethical duty to prospects and clients.

Client review meetings are one of the most powerful and underleveraged opportunities in a financial advisor's practice to demonstrate ongoing value, deepen relationships, and advance long-term financial plans. Yet without a clear framework, it's easy to default to routine investment updates and miss the opportunity to showcase the true depth of planning expertise. This common gap can leave clients undervaluing their advisor's services, slow the momentum of important planning recommendations, and make review meetings feel more transactional than transformational. This course gives financial advisors a practical, step-by-step approach to planning and leading client review meetings with confidence and intention. Advisors will learn how to build planning-centered agendas that go well beyond portfolio performance, prepare for and present common planning topics in ways clients actually understand, and facilitate conversations that build trust and inspire action. Through real-world examples and application-based learning, participants will develop the skills to walk into every review meeting prepared, professional, and ready to conduct planning-centered conversations that move clients forward and create the foundation for successful long-term financial plans.