Below is a list of currently available webinars in the Kitces.com Members Section.
Upon completion of the requisite quiz, CE credits will be reported directly to the CFP Board and/or IMCA on your behalf at the end of the month!
Maximizing Social Security Benefits for Couples (1.0 CE)
Session Description:
Nearly every prospective retiree faces the decision about when to begin receiving Social Security payments, which can begin as early as age 62, or be delayed as late as age 70. The good news of delaying benefits is that they receive a guaranteed increase for each month and year of waiting; the bad news is that during the waiting period, no payments are received! This trade-off creates a "breakeven" period that must be reached in order for delaying to be beneficial. And for married couples, the situation is further complicated by the fact that the timing of when one spouse takes benefits can impact both the timing of spousal benefits and the size of survivor benefits. In this session, we look in depth at the trade-offs of Social Security timing, especially for married couples, the interplay between retirement, spousal, and survivor benefits, and strategies to optimize and maximizing Social Security retirement benefits for couples (includes divorced ex-spouses).
This session is eligible for 1.0 hours of CE upon completion of the requisite quiz.
Financial Planning Implications of the Alternative Minimum Tax (1.0 CE)
Session Description:
This session will give you key information on understanding AMT and its complications, how to evaluate client exposure, and the implications and planning strategies that stem from AMT’s expanding reach over your clients. Think you don't have clients who will be concerned about AMT? Think again. Your clients have become increasingly exposed to AMT in recent years, and the trend will continue now that the fiscal cliff legislation has made current AMT rules permanent! If you don’t know how to spot potential AMT triggers and manage them, you had better learn – now!
This session is eligible for 1.0 hours of CE upon completion of the requisite quiz.
Advanced Roth Conversion Strategies (1.0 CE)
Session Description:
The natural appeal of a Roth-style retirement account is the potential for tax-free growth for life. However, the reality is that creating a Roth account has a “cost” – the upfront tax liability of contributing to (or converting into) the account, which is avoided with a traditional pre-tax IRA or 401(k). As a result, optimal Roth strategies involve not merely contributing to or converting into Roths, but managing the timing and leveraging the available tax law to maximize the strategy. In this session, we explore techniques to maximize Roth contributions, including so-called “Backdoor Roth” IRAs and “Mega Backdoor Roth” 401(k) strategies, and leveraging the Roth recharacterization rules to optimally fill lower tax brackets, and be able to ensure that an investment in a Roth has a positive return before being required to commit to it!
This session is eligible for 1.0 hours of CE upon completion of the requisite quiz.
Generating Tax Alpha With Effective Asset Location (1.0 CE)
Session Description:
While it is ‘standard’ for advisors to diversify into an asset allocated portfolio, the question of where to locate those asset classes is more challenging. In this session, we will explore the various ways to handle asset location, taking into consideration tax efficiency, expected returns, and time horizons. We also take a look at how to build, use, and implement an asset location priority list based on the expected return and the tax efficiency of various assets. Finally, we review the caveats and concerns of asset location and approximate the value of utilizing an asset location strategy with your clients.
This session is eligible for 1.0 hours of CE upon completion of the requisite quiz.
Taking a Fresh Look at Reverse Mortgages (1.0 CE)
Session Description:
For most of their history, reverse mortgages have been rather unpopular with financial planners, due both to their relatively high costs, and the fact that they are typically viewed as a resource or tool of last resort. Yet the reality is that use of reverse mortgages has exploded over the past decade, aided more recently by a newer, lower cost option, and several recent research articles in the Journal of Financial Planning have shown ways that reverse mortgages can be used proactively to enhance retirement income sustainability. In this presentation, we review the technical mechanics of HECM reverse mortgage loans, the costs involved, the emerging reverse mortgage strategies and applications that should be considered for clients, and the caveats and concerns that remain.
This session is eligible for 1.0 hours of CE upon completion of the requisite quiz.
Understanding the New World of Health Insurance (1.5 CE)
Session Description:
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010, but many of its most significant provisions take effect starting in 2014, with health insurance exchanges having just begun to roll out. In this session, we take a deep look at the new health insurance coverage rules, including the creating of essential health benefits, the rollout of the new health insurance exchanges, the new premium assistance tax credit, and the new individual health insurance mandate and how to manage it. While the rules of “Obamacare” have been highly controversial, the reality is that they are taking effect, and whether liked or not will have a significant impact on health insurance and tax planning opportunities for clients in the years to come!
This session is eligible for 1.5 hours of CE upon completion of the requisite quiz.
Strategies For Managing Sequence Of Return Risk In Retirement (1.0 CE)
Session Description:
For long-term investors, the reality is that even if markets are volatile for a period of time, as long as the portfolio stays invested, returns can average out in the long run. In the case of retirees, however, ongoing spending withdrawals introduce the possibility that if the portfolio experiences weak returns early on, it could be depleted entirely before the good returns finally show up. As a result, retirees must consider this “sequence of returns” risk when planning for retirement, and strategies to manage it, from reducing spending in the first place, to engaging in more dynamic asset allocation to reduce risk exposure, or dynamic spending strategies to adapt spending withdrawals to market changes along the way!
This session is eligible for 1.0 hour of CFP CE upon completion of the requisite quiz.
Understanding DoL Fiduciary and the Best Interests Contract (1.5 CE)
Session Description:
With the issuance of a Department of Labor (DoL) fiduciary rule on April 6 of 2016, the world of professional financial advice took its first step into the future, declaring that brokers can no longer earn commissions and other forms of conflicted compensation from advice via consumers, unless they agree to do so pursuant to a Best Interests Contract (BIC) agreement with the client, or meet the requirements to be a Level Fee Fiduciary. Both standards commit the advice-provider to a fiduciary standard of giving advice in the “best interests” of the client, earning “reasonable compensation”, and providing appropriate disclosure and transparency about the products and compensation involved, which in turn will require significant changes to how advisors do business in the years to come.
This session is eligible for 1.5 hours of CFP CE upon completion of the requisite quiz.
An In-Depth Look At Optimal Rebalancing Strategies (1.0 CE)
Session Description:
The conventional view of rebalancing is that it’s a way to enhance long-term returns for investors while keeping their portfolio on target to achieve long-term goals. The reality, though, is that when rebalancing across different asset classes like stocks and bonds, systematic rebalancing is more likely to reduce returns, albeit with the benefit of also reducing risk. And for those who wish to engage in the strategy, it’s still necessary to consider the optimal frequency for rebalancing – which, as it turns out, is not based on a fixed time horizon like monthly, quarterly, or annual rebalancing, but instead is best done by targeting asset allocation thresholds at which a rebalancing trade will trigger (however long it takes to get there!).
This session is eligible for 1.0 hour of CFP CE upon completion of the requisite quiz.
