Approved IAR CE Courses

In this continuing education session, learners will review 2 Nerd’s Eye View blog articles: Alternative Investment Due Diligence For RIAs: A Framework For Compliantly Evaluating Private Funds and 10 Charts To Help Advisors Guide Top Client Concerns In 2026.

In the first article, Ben Henry Moreland, Senior Financial Planning Nerd at Kitces.com, outlines how fiduciary duty and the duty of care require advisors to develop thorough due diligence processes when evaluating alternative investments – especially private funds. The article breaks down why complex or opaque investment structures demand deeper analysis, how to tailor diligence to client and manager factors (including risk, liquidity, strategy, operations, and costs), and how advisors can document and justify their assessments to ensure that recommendations are in the client’s best interest.

In the second article, James Liu presents ten key charts and insights from Clearnomics that frame the major economic and market themes shaping financial planning for 2026. These visuals help advisors contextualize topics such as artificial intelligence’s impact on markets, valuation levels, geopolitical risks (including tariffs), Federal Reserve policy, currency dynamics, and the role of diversification in managing client portfolios. The article emphasizes how advisors can use data driven talking points to better educate and guide clients through an increasingly complex investment landscape.

Client review meetings are one of the most powerful and underleveraged opportunities in a financial advisor's practice to demonstrate ongoing value, deepen relationships, and advance long-term financial plans. Yet without a clear framework, it's easy to default to routine investment updates and miss the opportunity to showcase the true depth of planning expertise. This common gap can leave clients undervaluing their advisor's services, slow the momentum of important planning recommendations, and make review meetings feel more transactional than transformational. This course gives financial advisors a practical, step-by-step approach to planning and leading client review meetings with confidence and intention. Advisors will learn how to build planning-centered agendas that go well beyond portfolio performance, prepare for and present common planning topics in ways clients actually understand, and facilitate conversations that build trust and inspire action. Through real-world examples and application-based learning, participants will develop the skills to walk into every review meeting prepared, professional, and ready to conduct planning-centered conversations that move clients forward and create the foundation for successful long-term financial plans.

In this continuing education session, learners will review 2 Nerd’s Eye View blog articles: Recommending A Corporate Trustee: Finding One Who Will Serve The Client’s Interests (Without Competing For Client Relationship) and The 6-Figure Care Decision: Evaluating Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) And Other Later-Life Housing Strategies

In the first article, author David Haughton explores the critical role of trustee selection in ensuring a client’s estate plan functions as intended, with particular focus on when and how financial advisors should recommend a corporate trustee. The discussion examines the differences between individual trustees, traditional corporate trustees, professional trustees, and advisor-friendly trust companies, along with the implications of directed versus delegated trust structures.

Second, author Kathleen Rehl explores how financial advisors can guide clients through later-life housing decisions, with a particular focus on Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs). The discussion reframes the decision away from simply comparing amenities or monthly costs and toward evaluating how housing and long-term care will be delivered, coordinated, and funded over time. The article outlines the structural differences between aging in place, 55+ communities, assisted living, and CCRCs, highlighting how each option allocates financial, longevity, and care-coordination risks.

In this continuing education session, learners will review 2 Nerd’s Eye View blog articles: Why Taxable Custodial Accounts Are Better Than OBBBA “Trump Accounts” For Kids’ Savings and Reducing ACA Health Insurance Premiums After The Expiration Of The ‘Enhanced’ Premium Tax Credit.
In the first article, Ben Henry- Moreland, CFP®, evaluates the implications of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) provision that created Trump Accounts – new retirementstyle accounts for children under age 18—and contrasts them with traditional taxable custodial accounts. The article explains Trump Account rules, contribution limits, tax treatments, and how issues like Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), Roth conversions, and the “kiddie tax” impact longterm savings outcomes. It emphasizes the relative flexibility and potential tax benefits of custodial accounts compared to Trump Accounts, and highlights planning considerations when advising families on savings vehicles for minor children.
In the second article, Ben Henry-Moreland also explores how the expiration of the enhanced Premium Tax Credit (PTC) at the end of 2025 affects health insurance premiums for clients purchasing coverage through Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans. It outlines how the PTC works and the impact of reverting to pre 2021 subsidy rules, including changes to income thresholds, household eligibility, and resulting premium increases. The article then provides practical planning strategies – such as managing modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) through retirement contributions, HSA/FSA contributions, timing of income, and other techniques – to help clients preserve PTC eligibility or minimize the financial burden of higher premiums in 2026 and beyond.