Approved IAR CE Courses

Detection and prevention of financial exploitation and scams are at the top of regulators' and industry professionals' minds. This course explores the financial exploitation of seniors and vulnerable adults, discussing financial scams and how to recognize and report them.

Financial exploitation occurs when a person misuses or takes the assets of a vulnerable adult for their own personal benefit. Assets are commonly taken via forms of deception, false pretenses, coercion, harassment, duress and threats. This course will provide answers to these questions: What is financial exploitation? Who does it impact? What are the signals? Why should you care? What to do about it? Additionally, this course will review the features of a variable annuity, suitability of variable annuities, and supervisory responsibilities in regards to variable annuities.

Get clued into the financial planning process and the financial services industry. This course covers the basic analytic tools of the trade, income tax planning, risk management planning, retirement planning, wealth accumulation planning, estate planning, and business planning, and concludes with a look at the profession.

This course provides an overview of financial statements, how to access them, and theirsignificance to IARs. Concepts and terminology are presented to help IARs understand thethree main types of financial statements'balance sheets, income statements, and cash flowstatements'and how they interrelate. The course covers methods of accessing a company'sfinancial statements, including the use of EDGAR to search SEC filings. Coverage of the balancesheet includes a discussion of different classes of assets and liabilities, the need for theequation assets - liabilities = owners' equity to balance, and the role of retained earnings intracking a company's performance over time. Coverage of the income statement includes thedistinction between revenues, gross income, operating income, and net income, as well as howvarious expenses are categorized, such as COGS, depreciation, PP&E, and taxes. Coverage ofthe cash flow statement includes the distinction between cash-basis accounting and accrual-basisaccounting, how cash flows are categorized, and the distinction between sources of cash and uses of cash.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of comprehensive financial planning strategies, including investment management, asset allocation, retirement planning, and estate preservation. Participants will gain practical knowledge of the six-step financial planning process, client relationship management, and the ethical and regulatory frameworks shaping the financial industry, including the Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Rule. Designed for professionals seeking to enhance their expertise, the course emphasizes compliance, transparency, and actionable solutions to meet diverse client needs in a dynamic economic landscape.

Ongoing monitoring meetings get boring. Advisors and clients alike are not thrilled to be having the same meeting again and again where there is nothing new or exciting to report. Yet, when clients hit the 'fine' phase of the client-advisor relationship, this can be the perfect time to start having 'flourish' conversations and bring some fun back to the client-advisor relationship and transform the boring monitoring meetings. Join us and learn about thinking of the three phases of the client advisor relationship as fix, fine, flourish and the questions to ask clients that move them from fine to flourish which ends up brining the advisors back to where they are happiest, at fix.

In this session, learners will review two Nerd's Eye View blog articles: Hiring Your First Employee: What You Need To Know To Cover Your Compliance Obligations, When Are Advisors (Financially) Liable For Negligent Investment Advice? (And Who Pays For It), and The SEC Playbook For Newly-Registered Advisers: Preparing For The SEC Examination And Complying With The Information Request Letter. In the first article, Jacqueline Hummel walks advisors through the critical considerations and compliance obligations when hiring their first employee. Topics such as whether to hire an independent contractor or employee, registration requirements for investment advisors, and determining how new hires will be supervised are discussed. In the second article, Ben Henry-Moreland reviews the legal precedence for advisor liability when providing advice to clients and discusses the implications on firms and individual advisors for negligence. In the third article, Chris Stanley provides a detailed overview of the process of going through an SEC Examination and highlights best practices for preparation for newly registered investment advisers.

Times are changing rapidly. Cars can drive themselves. Artificial intelligence is reshaping everyday life. Careers are becoming more flexible than ever before, with remote work, portfolio careers, and longer working lives replacing traditional employment paths. As the world evolves, clients' expectations and goals are evolving with it. Retirement is no exception.

In this webinar, Adam Van Deusen explores how the traditional concept of retirement, where a client leaves a full-time career followed by a period where the client fully exits the workforce, is a relatively modern construct and is increasingly no longer the only model for retirement planning. Adam introduces five retirement paths: traditional retirement, financial independence, sabbaticals, Coast FIRE, and semi-retirement, highlighting the unique benefits, trade-offs, and planning considerations associated with each. Adam emphasizes the advisor's role in helping clients recognize these alternatives, identify the path that best fits their values and financial circumstances, and assist clients in thinking through tax strategies, health insurance planning, retirement income planning, and stress testing to help clients successfully implement flexible retirement strategies.