Approved IAR CE Courses

This course will introduce the process of conducting fundamental and technical analysis. The fundamental analysis section will cover the income statement, balance sheet, and financial filings with the SEC. Then, the course will go over the calculation of earnings per share (EPS) and fully diluted EPS. It will also cover profit margins and coverage ratios. After a brief explanation of the balance sheet, the course will then examine return on equity, price to book value, and liquidity measurements. The final part of the fundamental analysis section will cover the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio and valuing a company based on its dividends. Technical analysis will be covered last and includes information on technical patterns and theories.

In today's competitive financial services market, your ability to use estate and financial planning techniques to the best advantage of your clients is vital to your success. Trusts are one of the major building blocks of those techniques. This course is designed to cast you in the role of financial planner for five clients. You will interview the clients to determine their circumstances, needs, and resources. You will analyze their situations to develop a financial plan using trusts, and you will implement the plan with the execution of appropriate documents.

This comprehensive course is designed to equip investment advisory representatives with the skills and knowledge necessary to guide their clients through the complexities of retirement planning. Participants will delve into various retirement accounts, effective investment strategies, and critical tax considerations, ensuring a thorough understanding of how to craft personalized retirement plans. The course also covers the use of technological tools and addresses regulatory compliance and ethical considerations in retirement planning. Through engaging content, real-life case studies, and interactive quizzes, representatives will learn to adapt to financial changes and make informed decisions that promote long-term retirement security. Upon completion, participants will not only gain practical skills but also confidence in their ability to manage and optimize retirement planning processes.

There are a number of alternative assets that may generate higher yields than your usual
investments in the stocks and bonds of public companies. In the Investing in Alternative
Assets course, we describe a range of alternative assets and their characteristics, including
investments in collectibles, cryptocurrency, infrastructure, intellectual property, life settlements,
and more. We also note the dangers inherent in these investments, and the types of
analysis work required to decide whether alternative assets might be a good investment
choice for you.

This course will introduce hedge funds and when they're suitable. The introduction will give students some defintions and context for the size of the hedge funds. In the following section, students will learn about how hedge funds are created and their history. Hedge fund strategies will be presented next and then we'll list some of the advantages and disadvantages of these investments. The final section will review how securities laws and regulations impact hedge funds.

Numerous factors must be taken into account to formulate suitable strategies for investing retirement assets for today's retirees. This course provides an introduction to distributions from tax-qualified retirement plans, as well as an overview of the principles of asset allocation that may be appropriate for a retired or retiring client.

This course reviews the fundamental responsibilities of the investment adviser, the governing state and federal rules and regulations, brochure rules, and required disclosures.

It is an ethical requirement to know your customer and nowhere is that more important than whenthe market is behaving counter to client expectations'but perfectly in line with what you, as an investment adviser representative'expected. And while volatile markets are difficult markets, an informed client is more likely to be a happy client, even if the results are not what they wanted. Clients must understand that difficult markets are not only the ones in which they lose value'soaring markets must also be managed properly. There are two phases to helping your clients through volatile markets; the first is education to manageexpectations and foster an understanding of risk and the markets. The second is communication to keep them informed of the progress of their portfolios. Clients should be taught that, despite periods of devastating losses and unprecedented market growth, market history reveals that returns over time are relatively consistent. Ethical Guidance in Difficult Markets takes a historical view of the difficult markets in the United States and how the ethical principle of Know Your Customer, backed with education and consistent communication, can help you guide your clients through difficult economic times.

America is aging and firms are struggling to meet the needs of senior clients. Because advisers can help mitigate the potentially devastating financial impact of cognitive decline, regulators urgeinvestment advisers to develop specific procedures to recognize and formally respond to diminished capacity to prevent financial and personal abuse. Indeed, the ethical responsibility and capacity toto observe changes in and make judgments about senior investor behavior and ability places investment adviser representatives in a unique and challenging position. To protect vulnerable clients, IARs must demonstrate subject matter expertise, patience, empathy, vigilance, an understanding of how people age normally'and how to respond, escalate, and document when and IAR suspects a client with diminished capacity is becoming vulnerable. Notably, IARs are both obligated by law'and protected by law'to report their suspicions.This course, The Ethics of Recognizing Diminished Capacity, discusses the symptoms of diminished cognitive and financial capacity and how financial professionals must identify and mitigate any harm,thereby protecting the client, the adviser, and the firm. It identifies the most frequent types of suitability ...