Kitces virtual event puts spotlight on IAR CE requirements

Kitces.com, the namesake website of financial planning industry thought leader Michael Kitces, has announced a new virtual event to help investment advisor representatives get to grips with updated ethical requirements.

The specialized ethics requirements, which are set to take effect in Florida and California later this year, were handed down by the North American Securities Administrators Association as part of the rollout of its 2020 Model Rule.

That rule, which introduced the first-ever continuing education mandate for investment advisers, was initially adopted by three states in 2022. Eight states followed suit in 2023, and another seven states are set to embrace the framework this year.

Florida and California’s participation, which will bring the new rules to 18 states across the US, is notable as the two Sun Belt states are wealth hotspots with high concentrations of investment advisers, effectively raising the CE bar for a lot more IARs.

"Because our Kitces.com platform has long focused on providing continuing education to financial planners who seek to get paid for their financial advice – or what we call ‘Financial Advicers’ – the 17,000-plus advisors in our Members Section are overwhelmingly CFP professionals who work for an independent RIA or are dual-registrants with a broker-dealer and their corporate RIA," said Chief Financial Planning Nerd, Michael Kitces in an emailed statement.

To help meet the growing demand for CE programming that aligns with NASAA’s new specialized Ethics requirements, Kitces.com announced a full-day virtual program aimed at fulfilling investment adviser representatives’ Ethics CE obligation for the 2024 calendar year.

“It was only natural for us to expand our Kitces content to provide IAR CE, in addition to the CFP, CPA, and other financial advisor designations we already cover," Kitces said.

The virtual event, scheduled for August 29, also extends Kitces’ education platform to a new medium, which already has long-form articles related to IAR ethics, products and practices.

“There are a subset of financial advisors who would simply prefer to have the material presented to them in a live event from an instructor,” Kitces said. “This provides advisors a choice of how to consume the content in a manner that best fits their personal preferences and learning style."