Approved IAR CE Courses

This is a continuing education course that covers all aspects of Individual Retirement Accounts. The course is designed to help the financial advisor or insurance professional benefit the client with more in-depth information concerning the history and specific types of IRAs; investing; protections; estate planning; and education.

The Advisor's Guide to Social Insurance Programs is an educational tool to help advisors through the maze of programs, rules and regulations that affect many if not all their aging Baby Boomer clients, their spouses, and dependents. The course is broken down into three sections to give the advisor an understanding of the various benefits of the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs.

This course has been developed to enhance the Advisor’s 401(k) knowledge and provide updates on the most recent 401(k) plan guidance. With recent tax law changes, Department of Labor requirements and court settlements, this course extends beyond the basics to cover special 401(k) testing rules and design options, as well as, ERISA and fiduciary responsibilities of the “parties of interest.”

As private credit continues to evolve, secondaries are emerging as a differentiated way to access the asset class. In this webcast, experts will discuss the growing role private credit secondaries play in today’s market, how they differ from traditional direct lending strategies, and why they represent a compelling opportunity for client portfolios. They will provide practical insights into private credit market dynamics and the potential benefits of a secondaries-focused approach.
Learning Objective: Advisors will learn about private credit and direct lending and how they compare with traditional fixed income exposures, why the private credit secondaries market exists and the potential benefits secondaries provide with discounted entry points, enhanced visibility, and risk mitigation, and gain practical guidance on how advisors are using private credit secondaries to optimize client portfolios.

This course provides an overview of the SEC's Compliance Program Rule for investment advisers.It is this rule that requires investment advisers to have a compliance program ensuring that thefirm and its supervised individuals are compliant with the SEC's other rules and regulations. Thecourse covers the purpose of the rule and associated historical background information, as well asthe SEC statutory authority underlying the rule. Much of the course focuses on the three mainrequirements of the rule: that an investment adviser have written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent violations; that compliance be verified with annual reviews; andthat the investment adviser designate an individual to oversee compliance, often referred to as thechief compliance officer (CCO). Key compliance areas to be covered by the compliance systemare also discussed, along with documentation and recordkeeping. The course covers best practices, examination/enforcement by the SEC, and recent developments in enforcement withexamples.

This interactive course examines the ethical foundations of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and its application in financial planning conversations. Through the lens of fiduciary responsibility, participants will explore how the MI spirit (partnership, acceptance, compassion, evocation) supports client autonomy and decision-making. The course addresses the ethical risks of unintentional directive communication and advisor overreach, offering practical strategies for aligning advice with a clients value and readiness. Through self-paced lessons, structured reflection, and a live Q&A session, advisors will learn how ethical communication can lead to deeper trust, greater clarity, and more meaningful outcomes.

This course provides a general overview of the importance and ethics of choice architecture, whichdescribes how the presentation of choices can guide prudent decisions without manipulative tactics. The course begins by comparing behavioral finance with the efficient markets hypothesis and contrasting their views of investors and market movements. Next, the course defines behavioral finance concepts such as anchoring, prospect theory, and loss aversion bias. The course then provides a discussion of how to ethically frame data to clarify complex information without undulyinfluencing decision making. Then the course presents specific examples of framing techniques, such as positive versus negative framing, certain versus uncertain framing, and attribute versus goal framing. The course explores how the sequence of choices impacts perception and its ethical implementation in financial presentations. Then the course explains the importance of decision fatigue and how to mitigate its impact on clients. Finally, the course concludes with case studiesillustrating how to create personalized financial presentations that clarify and elucidate complex information for diverse clients while ethically guiding them to prudent investment goals.

This course examines the professional ethics of prospecting for customers. This includes communicating with clients and prospects who are experiencing cognitive disabilities. The course begins by broadly discussing the ethical obligations an IAR has to their clients including presenting a balanced view of products and services, client confidentiality, disclosure, and avoidance of conflicts of interest, skilled performance of their services, full disclosure of material information, andthe additional obligations necessitated by their fiduciary duty. The course continues to outline the duties an IAR has to their employer, such as careful solicitation, full disclosure, and proper accounting of funds. Unethical and prohibited activities are highlighted, including churning, incomplete disclosure, and misrepresentation; concluding with suggestions for avoiding the most common misleading terms. Ethical considerations regarding recommendations to replace products and services are analyzed. Next, the course focuses on ethical concerns surrounding serving clients and prospects experiencing cognitive impairments. Topics include gathering information, making recommendations, and implementing strategies. CONTINUED ON LAST PAGE