Approved IAR CE Courses

In this session, learners will take a deep dive into the IRS's Finalized Regulations through an article written by Jeffrey Levine, CPA/PFS, CFP, AIF, CWS, MSA, and Ben Henry-Moreland. In this session, Jeff and Ben highlight the impact of the finalized regulations on eligible and non-eligible designated beneficiaries. The authors go on to detail the implications of the Finalized Regulations on required minimum distributions, trusts, and annuities. The article concludes with a summary of proposed IRS regulations and the clarifications that advisors can glean from the latest IRS communications.

Sometimes there are situations where individuals need access to funds in their tax-deferred retirement accounts sooner than the rules allow. In fact, except for a narrow range of 'emergency' situations, the only way most individuals can access these funds without incurring a 10% early withdrawal penalty tax is by setting up 'Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (SEPP)', otherwise known as 72(t) payments. To do so, however, taxpayers must adhere to several rules that have been provided by the IRS or risk paying significant penalties. Join us at the August Kitces Monthly webinar where expert guest, Jeffrey Levine, will discuss the rules to consider and strategies to apply when helping clients who may need early access to their retirement funds.

Financial planners are often working to adapt estate plans to consider client concerns over legislative changes. However, proposed legislative changes may or may not come to pass, leaving financial planners with the option of changing client estate plans with limited information or potentially leaving clients exposed to the consequences of future tax law. Neither of these outcomes is ideal. This leaves the question of how to properly create estate plans that meet client needs and are flexible enough to remain effective in uncertain times. In this webinar, David Haughton, JD, CPWA', explains how to create flexible estate plans with trusts that go beyond the traditional AB trust structure. He also details how a 'kitchen sink' power of attorney, IRA beneficiary designations, and donor-advised funds can be utilized for flexible wealth transfers.

In the session, we will review two blog articles: Utilizing Swap Powers In Irrevocable Trusts To Add Flexibility And Income Tax Efficiency and Why Pre-Tax Retirement Contributions Are Better Than Roth In Peak Earning Years (Even If Tax Rates Increase). In the first article, Anna Pfaehler, CFP, AEP, illustrates how advisors can recognize when swap powers in irrevocable trusts can be used to make irrevocable trusts more flexible and allow for greater tax efficiency to account for changing grantor circumstances. In the second article, Ben Henry-Moreland explains the debate over pre-tax retirement accounts as potential "tax time bombs" while considering historical changes in marginal tax rates and modern tax reform. Through this analysis of the tax time-bomb debate, Ben explains the benefits of utilizing pre-tax retirement accounts and how to determine when they would benefit client retirement portfolios.

In this continuing education session, learners will review How Financial Planners Actually Do Financial Planning, the fourth report in a biannual series by Kitces Research that explores the factors that drive advisor productivity. This report examines four key domains of the financial planning landscape: time, process, technology, and pricing.

In recent years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been especially active in updating 'old' regulatory rules to modernize them, leading to an ongoing wave of compliance changes for financial advisors. And the regulators don't appear to be done yet, which means financial advisors may want to start preparing now for what could come next! In this session, we will discuss the regulatory (and legislative) developments that are emerging in Washington, which may affect financial planners such as the proposed changes to the Custody Rule, potential new Cybersecurity regulation, new rules on oversight of vendors when Outsourcing, and more.

This session is a practical, on-the-ground compliance update for investment advisers who need to know not just what the rules say, but where the SEC is focusing its attention and what that means for how they run their firms. Compliance attorney Chris Stanley walks through the current state of Reg S-P and what written incident response programs need to look like in practice, common custody triggers and how to comply with the custody rule’s requirements, where SEC examiners are spending their time and what they want to see, and how advisors should think about the SEC’s recordkeeping rule in the context of modern technology.

In this session, advisors will gain critical insights into the evolving regulatory landscape impacting investment advisers. Compliance expert, Max Schatzow, will explore FinCEN’s final rule expanding the definition of “financial institution” under the Bank Secrecy Act, along with new AML/CFT reporting requirements. Attendees will learn about recent amendments to Regulation S-P, which mandate written incident response programs and enhanced oversight of service providers. The session also covers current SEC examination priorities, equipping advisors with practical strategies to maintain compliance in an increasingly complex regulatory environment.[

What do you do when you suspect an aging client is being financially exploited, often by a friend or family member taking advantage of them? Two regulatory tools exist specifically to help you act: the trusted contact framework and temporary disbursement hold authority. But many advisors either don't know these tools exist, don't understand the conditions under which they can be used, or are so uncertain about the rules that they default to doing nothing (to avoid accidentally breaching client privacy) while allowing a client's assets to remain at risk.

Join Amy as she takes a deep dive into these two specific provisions of NASAA's Model Act to Protect Vulnerable Adults from Financial Exploitation: what they actually say, what they allow, what they require, and why regulators created them in the first place. Using real case scenarios, attendees will work through exactly how to apply these tools in practice: when a trusted contact can be reached out to and for what purpose, what triggers the authority to place a temporary hold on a disbursement, what documentation must accompany that hold, and what happens next.