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.
Compliance Reviews Under New SEC Amendment and Crafting an Annual Compliance Calendar
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.
This presentation introduces a simple 4-step retirement income plan that helps advisors gain a deeper understanding of the client's attitudes toward lifestyle and legacy goals. Goal-based retirement planning provides a client-driven process that matches investment risk and financial product selection to spending. Moving beyond a traditional withdrawal strategy and failure rates demonstrates the need for spending adjustments and provides a framework for discussing products that reduce longevity risk. Through a better understanding of client preferences and a deliberate discussion of objectives and income tradeoffs, the goal-based income plan provides retirees with a deeper and more realistic understanding of how their investments relate to how they spend in retirement.. At this webinar, Professor of Wealth Management at The American College of Financial Services, Michael Finke, explains the practical implementation of a simple 4-step retirement income plan designed to help financial planners gain a deeper understanding of their clients' attitudes toward lifestyle and legacy goals.
Creating a stable income from retirement savings can be counterintuitive, as advisors must ensure income stability while navigating market volatility and sequence-of-returns risk, which can significantly impact a client’s portfolio and increase exposure to longevity risk. In this webinar, Michael Finke explains how advisors can align investment strategies with specific retirement spending goals by differentiating between essential and discretionary expenses. He then outlines 3 strategies for using fixed income to meet essential spending needs: withdrawals from bond funds, building Treasury bond ladders to match future liabilities, and transferring longevity risk through annuities. Together, these approaches provide a framework for creating a more stable and predictable retirement income plan while balancing tradeoffs among risk, flexibility, and guarantees.
In this session, learners will review two estate planning articles from the Nerd's Eye View blog by David Haughton, JD, CPWA: Creating Incentive Trusts To Foster Beneficiary Legacies Without Spoiling The Kids and Making Estate Planning More Tax Efficient And Equitable For Beneficiaries By NOT Just Splitting The Assets Evenly. Both articles examine how inherited assets may impact beneficiaries and how clients, with the assistance of their advisors, can be proactive by planning for the realities of future inheritances. In the first article, Haughton walks through the common ways decedents transfer assets to beneficiaries and explains how incentive trusts can be used to incentivize (or disincentivize) behaviors in accordance with their values, such as personal responsibility, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy. In the second article, Haughton discusses how clients commonly leave their beneficiaries equal amounts of each asset to be distributed as a way to split assets tax-efficiently and equitably. But Haughton suggests an alternative asset-by-asset approach that can be more effective, which considers the beneficiary's unique financial circumstances and that may result in a more equitable split of assets. This article explains the approach, its advantages and disadvantages, and when it may be a useful strategy for clients to adopt.
Bonds are a common part of a client's investment portfolio. However, common does not mean uncomplicated. The bond type, method of purchase, and circumstances by which it is sold can all impact how a bond's basis is adjusted, the tax that will be applied, and the applicable forms for tax reporting. In this webinar, Tim Steffen, CPA/PFS, CFP', CPWA' demystifies taxation rules on bonds that can be easily overlooked, such as the tax treatment on Original Issue Discount (OID) bonds, market discount, and premium on bonds. For each unique bond scenario, Tim explains options for how applicable taxes on bonds can be reported and walks through how to review the forms used for tax reporting. Tim concludes this webinar with a review of savings bonds that are particularly popular in a high-interest rate environment and highlights the difference between how individual bonds and bond funds are taxed.