Approved IAR CE Courses

This quiz will include a review of the following articles: Implementing Retirement Income Guardrails To Facilitate (The Right) Spending Raises And Spending Cuts, Providing Mortgage Advice In A Higher Interest-Rate Environment: Opportunities For Advisors To Add Value, and How Different Monte Carlo Models Perform In The Real World: Assessing Quality Of Predictiveness In Retirement Income Forecasting Models

Monte Carlo analysis has become the dominant methodology for advisors to analyze retirement income planning strategies. But the way the results of Monte Carlo analysis are framed for clients can invoke different emotional responses and can affect portfolio withdrawal rate decisions. With this in mind, advisors can take advantage of a range of options to improve their use of Monte Carlo analysis, including framing the results as a 'Probability of Adjustment' rather than 'Probability of Success', comparing results using historical scenarios, leveraging regime-based models, and using risk-based guardrails. Using these methods, advisors can potentially provide clients with greater peace of mind regarding their retirement income choices and better help them achieve their specific income and legacy goals.

In this continuing education session, learners will review 2 Nerd Eye's View blog articles: Using Subtrusts To Allow Stretch IRA Treatment For Trusts With Multiple Beneficiaries and Motivating Clients Of All Ages And Life Stages To Stop Delaying Estate Planning. In the first article, Ben Henry-Moreland explains the practical implications of naming a trust a beneficiary of a retirement account and how the Final RMD Regulations have altered the distribution schedule rules for trust beneficiaries. In the second article, In this article, David Haughton, JD, CPWA' explains why clients may be delaying estate planning and ways that clients can help them move forward with a combination of regular communication about the topic, building a basic estate planning foundation, and utilizing the right tools and partners.

For most financial advisors, compliance is simply something you 'have to do' to satisfy regulators while providing financial advice. But in practice, regulations are put in place to protect consumers, and understanding the principles that underlie those regulations can make it easier to adhere to the requirements. In this session, Chief Financial Planning Nerd Michael Kitces is joined by compliance experts Terria Heng, Max Schatzow, and Leila Shaver to discuss what RIAs need to keep in mind as they seek to create a positive culture of compliance, develop and operate within their compliance policies and procedures, and what to watch out for to minimize the risk of audit deficiencies when compliance reviews inevitably come.

This session uses a business-owning client in his late 30s with a complex trust structure and a prenuptial agreement to expose a gap that appears in nearly every estate planning engagement: the difference between having documents and having an estate plan that is complete, funded, and actually works. Early-career advisors typically treat an executed estate plan as finished work; they review documents for content without verifying that assets are titled where the documents assume they are, and they miss the cascading legal consequences when that verification step is skipped. Participants will cross-reference document reviews, test them against a real titling gap discovered mid-engagement, and rehearse the client conversation that follows, uncovering a serious problem the client did not know existed. By the end, participants should be able to conduct a basic estate plan verification review, trace a titling gap through its downstream consequences, and communicate that finding to a client in plain language without triggering alarm.

This session uses the retirement of a high-asset couple in their late 50s as the vehicle to explore tax planning opportunities that are uniquely available in early retirement and almost universally overlooked, specifically the 0% long-term capital gains rate, the ACA Premium Tax Credit, and non-conventional account distribution sequencing. The purpose is to surface two blind spots that early-career advisors commonly carry into this type of case: framing retirement income as a portfolio yield problem rather than a 1040 management problem, and defaulting to Roth conversions as the obvious pre-RMD move without recognizing when that default closes off strategies that save more tax with greater certainty. Beyond the technical content, participants will practice two behavioral experiences that rarely get rehearsal time — reframing a client's presenting concern without dismissing it and holding a sound recommendation under pressure when a client keeps returning to something they want that the numbers don't support. Participants should leave with a sharper eye for early retirement tax windows, a clearer instinct for when a conventional planning default needs to be questioned, and enough practice with the client communication moments that they're not encountering them for the first time when it counts.

After the release of the Final Regulations, post-death IRA distribution rules have become more complex, creating more opportunities for IRA beneficiaries to inadvertently be subject to a large tax bill. Planning for the use of a trust as an IRA beneficiary creates a whole new set of planning considerations to balance the benefit of control with the additional cost and complexity of trusts. In this webinar, Jeff Levine reviews the impact of the Final Regulations on IRA beneficiaries and then explains the advantages and disadvantages of using a trust as an IRA beneficiary. He further explains the lifecycle of IRA trusts, detailing how they are established, funded, and administered based on whether they are a conduit or discretionary trust. The presentation concludes with the top 5 mistakes to avoid when creating IRA trusts.

Stock options can be a valuable portion of a client's compensation. However, Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) can require a significant amount of planning to maximize the benefits of this compensation to align with client goals, especially since ineffective planning for ISOs can result in significant unplanned tax liability. Planning for a client's stock options can also be an emotional experience, where clients may feel overwhelmed or sad when considering parting with company stock. In this webinar, Daniel Zajac, CFP', EA, provides a review of ISOs, explains how to decide on a client strategy for exercising ISOs based on a client's situation and the status of the issuing company, and details how to calculate the potential tax impact of exercising and selling ISOs, including navigating alternative minimum tax. Zajac concludes this webinar with a discussion of how to start conversations with clients about their incentive stock options and build a plan that aligns with their overall goals.