Approved IAR CE Courses

Election season can represent a stressful time for many clients, leading to an uptick in emotional responses, such as anger, anxiousness, or worry. Advisors know that clients bring their whole selves to their engagements, and advisors often must address these feelings to help clients progress with their financial goals and objectives productively. Barbara Kay explains how advisors can quickly assess their client's personality types and then provides guidance on how advisors can adapt their approach to connect with and calm clients based on their unique needs. Throughout her presentation, Barbara explains the scenarios that may cause clients stress and why and provides some context around how stress can present itself depending on the client's personality type. Barbara concludes with advice on how financial advisors can use financial counseling techniques to effectively communicate with clients during times of high emotion and address client biases.

In this continuing education session, learners will review 2 Nerd's Eye View blog articles: From Acknowledgment To Engagement: Key Questions To Reframe Issues And Get Action When Clients Are Off Track and Converting A Primary Residence Into Rental Property: Tax Strategies To Preserve Gain Exclusion, Defer Gain Recognition, And Leverage Deductible Expenses. In the first article, Meghan Lurtz shares strategies to turn to flounder meetings into collaborative, engaging conversations that inspire clients to take ownership of their financial plans. In the second article, Jeffrey Levine explains the key tax implications and opportunities when converting a primary residence into a rental property, including how to maximize deductions, preserve the Section 121 home-sale gain exclusion, and use deferral strategies such as a 1031 exchange.

Regulation SP Amendments - Ethics and Privacy is a one-hour, self-paced course designed for Investment Advisory Representatives. You'll explore the evolution of the Regulation S-P and the 'Safeguards Rule,' learn to recognize sensitive customer information, and assess its risk potential. Through real-world scenarios, you'll master a three-step breach response framework - recognize, escalate, notify - and develop client-focused communication strategies. The course then delves into fiduciary principles, such as care, loyalty, and diligence, to guide ethical decision-making, vendor oversight, and conflict mitigation. Finally, you'll implement practical controls, including 72-hour breach alert clauses and audit-ready documentation, ensuring your firm's data privacy measures are as robust and trustworthy as your financial advice.

This course is designed to educate insurance professionals in regard to the latest regulatorychanges governing suitability standards in the Industry. The new regulation includes a "best interest"standard, both at the federal level through the NAIC Suitability in Annuity Transactions ModelRegulation, SEC Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) and FINRA Rule 2111; and at the State level through the first state implementation (NY Regulation 187).

This course examines how Reg BI has increased the transparency of the relationships that retail investors have with broker-dealers and/or investment advisers. The key provisions of Reg BI will be analyzed in detail, which include the Disclosure Obligation, the Care Obligation, the Conflict of Interest Obligation, and the Compliance Obligation. Special emphasis is placed on understanding the types of conflicts that may arise when making financial recommendations and how to mitigate or eliminate them. The use of case studies will enhance understanding in how to handle situations that may arise in adherence with the provisions of Reg BI.

“Best Interest” in financial advising can mean various things, such as the most beneficial product, a duty of loyalty and care, or fair pricing. This course explores Regulation “Best Interest,” its meaning, origins, challenges, and its impact on broker-dealers and investment advisers in the financial industry.

This two-hour IAR CE course provides investment adviser representatives, supervisors, compliance professionals and investment adviser executives with a comprehensive overview of the SEC’s amendments to Regulation S-P. The course explains the key rule changes, including the requirement to adopt a written incident response program, enhanced customer notification obligations, and expanded oversight of service providers. Participants will gain practical guidance on implementing policies and procedures, updating compliance manuals, and conducting defensible internal reviews aligned with regulatory expectations. Through case studies, the course highlights common deficiencies and how firms can mitigate regulatory and operational risks. The course is designed to equip attendees with actionable steps to strengthen data protection, incident response, and vendor oversight practices within their organizations.

Regulation S-P is the backbone of client data privacy in the investment advisory space. Built on the foundation of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), it requires investment advisers to adopt policies and procedures designed to safeguard customer information and to provide transparency about how that information is collected, used, shared, and protected. The regulation isn't just about compliance - it's a reflection of the fiduciary duty advisers owe their clients and their clients' trust.This course outlines the essential elements of Regulation S-P and related privacy expectations, drawing from real-world enforcement actions, SEC guidance, and best practices. It is tailored for new and experienced advisers who want to confidently understand and apply the law to their day-to-day operations.