Approved IAR CE Courses

Navigating the complexities of long-term care and Medicaid eligibility can be overwhelming for clients facing a sudden care need without prior planning. This session, led by renowned elder law expert Dale Krause, J.D., LL.M., provides a comprehensive overview of crisis Medicaid planning, with a focus on Medicaid Compliant Annuities (MCAs). Participants will gain practical tools to protect client assets, accelerate Medicaid eligibility, and implement crisis strategies for both married and single individuals. The session features real-life case studies and a detailed walkthrough of Gift/MCA plans.

This one-hour course is designed for individuals who are involved in preparing, maintaining and/or testing an investment adviser's privacy policy and information security policies and procedures. This course will delve into the recent amendments to SEC Regulation S-P including the specific requirements of the incident response plan, the mandatory customer notification obligation, due diligence of service providers and exception to the annual delivery of the privacy notice.

The college funding landscape is evolving rapidly, with sweeping changes to the FAFSA, institutional methodologies such as the CSS Profile, and federal student loan programs. Financial advisors must understand these shifts in order to properly guide both high- and middle-income families through effective planning strategies.This session provides a practical roadmap for interpreting new FAFSA rules under the FAFSA Simplification Act and the OBBBA, analyzing the unique nuances of the CSS Profile, and navigating federal loan reforms affecting undergraduate, graduate, and parent borrowers. Advisors will also learn how to leverage timing strategies, 529 coordination, and strategic loan structuring to align college costs with long-term financial goals.Participants will leave with a toolkit of resources'including loan comparison matrices, affordability worksheets, and award letter negotiation templates'to help clients make smarter, ROI-based decisions about higher education financing.

The program provides a deep dive into the key provisions of the SEC's Investment Advisers Act Marketing Rule. This two-hour educational course is designed to help investment advisers, compliance professionals, and financial industry practitioners understand the complexities of the rule and ensure compliance with its requirements. The program will cover critical topics such as the definition of an advertisement, prohibited statements, testimonials and endorsements, performance advertising, third-party ratings, and recordkeeping requirements. Participants will also gain insights into real-world exam questions and best practices for compliance.

Every year, high school students endure the arduous process of applying to colleges, hoping to receive the illustrious acceptance letter. As parents walk through the ups and downs of this process with their students, another challenge may loom in the background: how to pay for college once their children get in. With the cost of college continuing to rise, the issue of how to pay for college has become increasingly concerning, especially for affluent families that are often ineligible for need-based aid. In this webinar, Joe Messinger, CFP', discusses how financial planners can help facilitate better conversations between parents and their students about paying for college, touching on topics such as school selection, important applications and formulas, and methods for lowering the cost of college. He further delves into specific strategies to maximize clients' resources to pay for college through a combination of tuition discounts, tax optimization opportunities, lending strategies, and scholarships.

HSAs are a common employee benefit for many clients. However, this form of savings account has several rules regarding contributions and distributions that can easily be overlooked by clients, leaving them open to potential tax penalties and missed opportunities to maximize the benefits of this unique savings vehicle. In this webinar, Ben Henry-Moreland, Senior Financial Planning Nerd at Kitces.com, walks participants through a detailed explanation of the planning considerations of HSA ownership starting from contribution eligibility to distribution rules to transferring assets in an HSA at death. In this session, he also explains how to strategically utilize an HSA to plan for current medical needs, take advantage of tax-free growth, and coordinate benefits with spouses and adult children.

Financial services professionals often face challenges when seniors show cognitive difficulties but remain legally competent, or when family members question a senior’s decisions. This course helps professionals recognize obstacles to ethical decision-making, such as rationalizations, critical thinking errors, and mental traps, and emphasizes emotional intelligence. It also provides tools for assessing ethical decisions, including the Six Pillars of Character and an eight-step decision-making model.

This course explores the sustainability of retirement portfolio withdrawals using historical data and a diversified, multi-asset portfolio model. Led by Craig L. Israelsen, Ph.D., the presentation analyzes the maximum sustainable annual withdrawal rate over 31 rolling 25-year periods from 1970 to 2024, illustrating how portfolios can remain viable even after decades of distributions. The course challenges the conventional 4% withdrawal rule, providing evidence that higher withdrawal rates'up to 10% or more in some periods'may be sustainable when portfolios are properly diversified and costs are managed. Participants will gain insights into the importance of asset allocation, the role of sequence-of-returns risk, and the benefits of using a percentage-based withdrawal strategy. This research-driven analysis provides investment advisers and financial planners with practical, data-backed guidance for helping clients navigate retirement income planning with greater confidence.

This month we review May blog articles. This quiz includes the following articles: Investing For Nonimmigrant Visa Holders: Understanding Visa Types, Investment Challenges, And Tax Implications and Pass-Through Entity Taxes: Mechanics, Considerations, And Planning Opportunities For Navigating SALT Cap Workarounds

Social capital, the relationships people have with formal and informal networks, plays a significant role in how people navigate their lives from day to day. Often overlooked, within these social constructs exist invisible systems that set a precedent for how people behave, feel, and interact with one another. These systems, if not explored, can be the very things that are preventing your clients from achieving their financial goals. In this presentation, Dr. Michael Thomas will unpack systems and social capital theories to help you address your clients' systems to encourage sustainable behavioral change.