Approved IAR CE Courses

This course will look at important recent compliance and trading changes and how those changes impact your duties as a financial professional. The new marketing rule, the DOL rule, the increasing focus on digital assets, and the uncertainty of the economy short-term are all issues that will impact your life as a financial professional and require changes in your practices.

The SECURE Act introduced significant changes to retirement planning, particularly in the distribution of IRA assets to heirs and beneficiaries. This course explains the rules for inherited IRAs—traditional and Roth—and the requirements for IRA owners and beneficiaries. Given the complexity and potential penalties for mishandling inherited IRA funds, clients need knowledgeable advisors to guide them in making suitable planning decisions.

This course will focus on firms and representatives legal and regulatory obligations to avoid and prevent insider trading, and the barriers that are among the most common preventative measures firms take. It will look at the history, development, and operation of insider trading and the various regulatory barriers established to aid in its prevention.

This course will review insider trading laws in the United States and how they impact investment advisers. The course begins by reviewing how insider trading laws have evolved over the years and presents case studies to illustrate legal concepts. The final section will review how investment advisers must develop and implement training plans to ensure that they comply with insider trading laws and regulations.

Insider Trading Compliance Essentials is a one-hour, self-paced course designed for Investment Adviser Representatives. You'll master critical definitions - insider trading, MNPI, Rule 10b-5 - and learn to recognize real-world red flags in advisory work. Through ethical-duty discussions and anonymized enforcement case studies, you'll see how compliance lapses occur and which preventive controls - pre-clearance, restricted lists, digital safeguards, and a strong compliance culture - stop MNPI misuse before it happens. A culminating scenario lets you apply a step-by-step decision framework in real-time, reinforcing your ability to uphold fiduciary duties, protect client trust, and preserve market integrity.

This course provides an overview of the ethics, history, and cases studies about insider trading. This is the first course in a two part series on insider trading, ethics, and regulatory compliance. The introductory course begins by providing a summary of the concept of material, nonpublic information, with multiple examples, and the ethical concerns surrounding its misuse. Next, the course describesthe regulators tasked with investigating alleged violations, in addition to the evolving legal philosophies of insider trading law. The course then outlines a brief history of pertinent legal decisions and congressional acts showcasing pertinent examples from the 1930s into the 2000s, as well as a summary of the civil and criminal penalties for insider trading. The course then delves into a wide range of recent investigations and enforcement actions. This covers both allegations, case studies, and sentencing involving corporate insiders, analysts, lawyers, hackers, hedge fund managers, and cryptocurrency insiders. The hacking section details how hackers gained access to confidential information and how they used it for insider trading. Finally, the course examines howinsider traders typically get caught, typically through advanced data analytics and whistleblowers.

This course provides an overview of the policies, procedures, and regulations formulated to protect firms from the harms of insider trading. The course begins with a brief overview of insider trading and why it is unethical to trade based upon material nonpublic information (MNPI). Next, the course covers Regulation FD, which provides an insight into how regulators approach MNPI and how accidental disclosure may be ameliorated through wide, public release.Then the course summarizes an investment adviser's obligation to write and enforce a Code of Ethics customized to their firm, with an emphasis on the role of the Chief Compliance Officer and common surveillance practices. This is followed by instructive critiques of inadequate Codes of Ethics by the SEC. Next, the course reviews best practices for properly managing MNPI, by both individuals and firms, such as 10b5-1 preset trading plans. Then the course covers information barriers in depth, including their purpose and operation, as well as suggestions regarding the printing and disposal of MNPI. Finally,the course covers recent case studies, exploring regulatory violations, penalties, and remedialefforts, in addition to steps to take if a firm suspects MNPI was improperly used or revealed.