Planning for Single Women explores the unique financial planning challenges and opportunities facing single women—whether divorced, widowed, or single by choice. Join Heather Zack, JD, LLM, MSFP, CAP® to better understand key structural risks such as longevity, income disparities, and caregiving responsibilities, and provides actionable strategies for advisors to support this underserved and high-need client segment. Through engaging case studies, the presentation covers critical planning areas including Social Security optimization, estate planning, and tax considerations, while also addressing broader themes like financial literacy, workforce participation, and closing the gender wealth gap. The goal is to equip advisors with practical tools to deliver more holistic, empathetic, and effective guidance to single female clients.
SEC examinations can be one of the most stressful regulatory events for registered investment advisers, but firms that understand the process and maintain strong compliance practices can significantly reduce risk. In this session, securities attorney Michelle Atlas-Quinn will explain how SEC exams work, what regulators are looking for, and how advisors can prepare their firms before an examination request arrives. The program will review common compliance deficiencies identified during examinations, including issues related to marketing, disclosures, fiduciary obligations, custody, and safeguarding client information. Michelle will also discuss the SEC’s 2026 examination priorities, including cybersecurity, Regulation S-P requirements, identity theft protections, emerging financial technologies such as AI and automated investment tools, and anti-money laundering expectations. Advisors will leave with practical strategies for strengthening compliance programs, organizing documentation, and navigating the examination process from the initial request letter through the resolution of deficiency findings.
This two-hour program will provide financial professionals with practical strategies to improve retirement planning outcomes through enhanced retirement spending and tax optimization techniques. During the first hour, participants will examine the mathematical, behavioral, and practical limitations of using “Probability of Success” as a primary retirement planning metric and explore alternative frameworks for evaluating retirement spending plans and communicating risk to clients. During the second hour, participants will learn how to identify and evaluate tax planning opportunities for retirees and pre-retirees, including Roth conversions, tax bracket management, Medicare IRMAA considerations, Social Security taxation, required minimum distributions, and income sequencing strategies. The program is designed to help advisors develop more effective retirement income recommendations that support long-term financial sustainability, tax efficiency, and improved client understanding.
This program explores the evolving landscape of Roth IRA conversions in light of recent tax law changes introduced under the OBBB, with a focus on identifying both opportunities and hidden pitfalls. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how provisions such as SALT deduction phaseouts, QBI limitations, and new senior deductions can significantly impact marginal tax rates and conversion outcomes. Through practical strategies and real-world applications, advisors will learn how to optimize Roth conversion decisions, minimize tax exposure, and better serve clients across a variety of financial situations—including high-net-worth individuals, business owners, and special needs planning scenarios.
When moving IRS and employee plan accounts, the goal is usually to retain tax-deferred status. But one wrong move, one simple mistake, can produce the opposite result'immediate taxability! This course covers the rules that apply to Rollovers and Roth conversions and how to execute these transactions in accordance with the tax code, regulations, and IRS rules.
Generally, distributions for IRA owners and plan participants' employer plans are optional until the account owner or plan participant reaches their applicable age to start the required minimum distribution (RMDs). Distributions made early can be subject to a 10% additional tax, but exceptions apply. RMDs are subject to an excise tax unless taken by the deadline. This course will demonstrate how advisors can work with clients who avoid these excise taxes.
Beneficiaries must take required minimum distributions (RMD) from the IRAs and employer plana account they inherit. However, the options for distributions are determined by the class in which a beneficiary fall. Beneficiaries can maximize the tax-deferred advantage of their inherited accounts by stretching distributions over the longest period available. This course will help advisors advise beneficiaries of their distribution options and obligations.
Reverse Mortgages: How to use Reverse Mortgages to Secure Your Retirement
In the early days, reverse mortgages were generally treated as a last resort option after other resources were depleted, or as a way to obtain quick access to a large lump-sum of assets. This is not the appropriate way to think about reverse mortgages in a retirement income plan, especially in light of recent research. The reverse mortgage option should be viewed as a method for responsible retirees to create liquidity for an otherwise illiquid asset, which in turn can create new options that potentially support a more efficient retirement income strategy (more spending and/or a greater legacy). After providing an overview of retirement income planning, which sets the context for understanding the potential role of reverse mortgages, this presentation explains the basics for how reverse mortgages work. I then provide an overview of potential uses for a reverse mortgage in a retirement income plan.
In an environment of heightened policy uncertainty and increased client anxiety around retirement income, former SSA Director Kurt Czarnowski will begin with a concise update on the current state of Social Security and a practical refresher on foundational claiming strategies. Drawing on decades of experience inside the Social Security Administration, Kurt will ground the discussion in what advisors need to know today before challenging one of the most entrenched pieces of conventional wisdom in retirement planning.
Derek Tharp will then examine why the standard advice to delay Social Security until 70 may not apply as broadly as conventional analyses suggest. Many Social Security claiming studies use a 0% discount rate, treating a dollar of benefits at age 62 as equivalent to a dollar at age 95 — an assumption that systematically favors delayed claiming while overlooking important real-world considerations. We’ll explore factors typically absent from standard analyses: mortality risk, sequence of returns risk, policy uncertainty, health span limitations, and the well-documented behavioral reality that retirees spend Social Security income far more readily than portfolio withdrawals. Using dynamic programming models that account for these empirically documented preferences, this session will demonstrate how personalized discount rates adjusted for each retiree’s circumstances can shift optimal claiming strategies meaningfully earlier than conventional guidance would indicate, and why early claiming often reflects rational decision-making rather than financial mistakes.