Advancing Knowledge in Financial Planning
INTRODUCING: The
Kitces.com Members Section
Finally, Continuing Education For Financial Planners That Actually Teaches You Something!
As a lifelong learner of all things financial planning, I know firsthand how hard it is to find accurate, credible and well-researched information to ensure you’re giving clients the right answers.
And that’s why I launched Kitces.com. Because I was already taking the time to research financial planning topics for clients myself. So I decided I would share what I was learning back with the entire advisor community.
“Best of the Best for Advisors”
But then a funny thing happened. We became the #1 blog for financial advisors across the entire industry. Some advisors were spending so much time reading our content on financial planning strategies, they began to ask, “Could we get continuing education credit for reading all of this?”
And so the Kitces.com Members Section was born!
In the Kitces.com Members Section, you’ll find more than enough hours of CE to fulfill the ongoing educational requirements for CFP (including CFP Ethics!), Investments & Wealth (IWI, formerly IMCA) and American College designations, and Investment Advisor Representative (IAR) CE obligations every year. (Eligible for EA and CPA CPE credits as well.)
And, in the decade since we first launched it, we’ve added more and more to the Members Section; including:
- White papers
- Webinars
- Exclusive Kitces CFP Ethics CE
- and even more member resources
Throughout all of our changes and growth, Kitces content has been developed around a single principle: continuing education for financial planners should actually teach you something useful!
Though this principle describes what we do, it is why we do it that truly illustrates the Kitces team’s mission, which is:
To help financial planners who are serious about their craft to fulfill their sacred duty to clients by advancing the knowledge and practice of financial planning…
…by being the leading online source of research, resources, education, and training for real financial planners.
You Won’t Like Our Content… Unless You’re Serious About Trying To Become A Better Financial Planner.
Leverage Your Time by Getting CE Credit for What You Should Already Be Reading!
The Nerd’s Eye View blog is already the most widely read blog amongst financial advisors, providing in-depth financial planning strategies you can apply with your clients. By taking that next step and joining the Members Section, you get the opportunity to earn CFP, Investments & Wealth (formerly IMCA), American College, and IAR CE credits for what you’re already reading, along with CPE credits if you’re a CPA! In fact, with the Kitces.com Members Section, you can have one high-quality source of 15+ hours per year of online on-demand CFP CE credits (including Ethics!), to fulfill all the educational hours for your annual IAR CE (there is an IAR CE reporting fee of $36/year) and CFP Continuing Education requirements.
Exclusive Content for Those Who Really Want To Go Deeper!
While the Nerd’s Eye View blog is free to all, the Kitces.com Members Section includes additional exclusive content available only to members, including white papers, webinars, and unique member resources. If you want to go deeper and get the best educational content in the financial planning industry to be more successful, you will love a Kitces.com membership.
Technical Topics Explained Clearly, From Nerds You Can Trust!
As you may have noticed from reading the Nerd’s Eye View, our content isn’t quick to read. Instead, it is thorough and well researched, while still explained clearly and written in a way that all advisors can understand. And that’s what you can count on for all the content you’ll find on Kitces.com: a combination of high-impact analysis and insights with plain talk for advisors, which has propelled the Kitces platform to become the leading source of education and insights in the advisor community. In fact, a lot of our Members don’t even go to Google anymore to search for information… their first stop is to search directly on Kitces.com!
The Highest Standards In Continuing Education!
You take professional standards seriously – that’s why you have professional designations that require CE credits! We take standards seriously, too – which is why we’ve gone through the certification process with the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through NASBA, and the CFP Board’s Quality Partner program, as well as North American Securities Administrators Associations (NASAA). Which means our content meets the highest standards in instructional design, to maximize its actual educational value to you!
Come learn with a community of financial planners you’d be proud to call your colleagues.
What is inside the Kitces.com Members Section?
(click an icon to learn more)
Instant Access to 30+ Hours of Online On-Demand CPA, CFP, IAR CE Credits
Whether your preferred method of consuming content is to read the Nerd’s Eye View blog, view a webinar, or go in-depth into a topic with one of our white papers, we’ve got you covered when it comes to CE credit options!
Plus, CE opportunities always stay fresh. Every month we release both a new webinar, and a new blog quiz worth 1.0+ CEs with the CFP Board and IWI, as well as CPE credits for CPAs, and IAR CE. Earn CE for content you are already reading or want to watch!
Access to Exclusive White Papers & 10 Years of Archives
As a Premier member, get instant access to our white papers, “The Kitces Report”, providing in-depth analyses of advanced financial planning strategies. Currently the Members Section holds 50+ White Papers, and new issues are released twice per year.
A few of our most popular issues of The Kitces Report include:
- Strategies to Maximize the Value of a Tax-Free Roth
- The New World of Security Planning
- Quantifying The Economic Value of Financial Planning
- Qualifying a Trust as the Designated Beneficiary of a Stretch IRA
(Most white papers are eligible for 1.5+ hours per issue of IWI, CFP, and IAR CE, and CPA CPE credits!)
Engaging Webinars on Advanced Financial Planning Topics
Enjoy monthly or on-demand access to engaging and instructional webinars from Michael Kitces and other leading industry experts on a wide range of advanced financial planning topics! Going beyond simple PowerPoint slides, our webinars deliver engaging expert speakers, a custom workbook with presentation notes and activities and graphics and animations to highlight key concepts. Video webinars, available live and recorded for on-demand access, are also eligible for CFP CE, and CIMA and CPWA continuing education credits, along with IAR CE* and CPE eligibility for CPAs now available as well!
New webinars are added monthly throughout the year for all members, and Premier members get instant on-demand access to the full archive! Just some of the available topics include:
- Generating Tax Alpha With Effective Asset Location
- Strategies For Managing Sequence Of Return Risk in Retirement
- An In-Depth Look at Optimal Rebalancing Strategies
… with new topics being added every month!
*Kitces.com will collect and remit to regulators the $36/year IAR CE reporting fee on behalf of investment advisers who are required to fulfill the new CE obligation
Why current members and industry leaders think a Kitces membership is worth the investment…
The Kitces Report is a vital component of our firm’s on going education.
There is no other source that continuously covers the broad range of technical topics our profession needs.
The Kitces Report is an essential element of any serious practice.
Not getting Michael’s Kitces Report? Seriously? If you’re as practitioner you MUST subscribe.
Other publications are optional. The Kitces Report is not.
Get Access To Michael’s Most Popular Charts And Graphics For Your Practice
Want access to the graphics from Nerd’s Eye View, and Michael’s most popular charts to use with your clients and in your practice?
The Members Section Resources area gives access to the entire Kitces Graphics Library for you to search and use on your website and in your newsletters and communications with clients.
In addition, our Members Section Resources provide printable charts you can refer to and use with your clients, including:
- Marginal Tax Rates for 2023
- How to Quantify the Value of Financial Planning
- Segmenting Services and Perks For A, B, and C Clients
- Crafting an Annual Client Service Calendar
- A 1-Page Financial Advisor Business Plan
… and more are being added all the time!
Automatic Reporting of Your Earned CE
All CE credit for CIMA, CIMC, CPWA, IAR and CFP certificants, along with all American College designations, are automatically reported on your behalf to Investments & Wealth Institute and CFP Board every week, based on completion of the requisite CE quizzes! IAR CE is automatically reported to NASAA every week only with the purchase of the $36/year IAR CE Add-On. (Completion certificates are provided for those who wish to self-report more quickly, as well as for NAPFA members and CPAs who are required to self-report.)
Get your CE, and then get back to your clients. We’ll handle the CFP Board, IWI, American College, and NASAA reporting!
Have additional questions about CE? See our frequently asked questions at the end of the page!
Live Monthly Office Hours sessions with Michael & Other Leading Industry Experts
The financial planning industry is constantly in flux and changing. Though Kitces.com prides itself on being a leader in helping to guide advisors through those changes, there will always be questions we either haven’t yet answered or haven’t done so in some time. Or, maybe you just want to get Michael and other industry expert’s perspective on the unique challenges and opportunities you face with your own practice.
For this reason, we created Monthly Office Hours to give our Premier Members more direct and exclusive access to Michael and his team. Each month, Michael and other industry leading experts will spend an hour answering questions submitted and voted on by those in our Premier Membership community.
Access to Exclusive Kitces CFP Ethics CE
Kitces.com Members are the only planning professionals able to get their CFP Ethics CE in a different way! Currently, the CFP Board mandates that CFP Ethics providers to use the CFP Board’s standardized presentation and script… with one exception. Here at Kitces.com, we have been approved as a pilot program to provide CFP Ethics differently than any other program.
Here’s what our Exclusive Kitces Ethics CE provides:
- Four ethics-focused articles written by Michael Kitces, that fulfill the 2 hour CFP Ethics CE Requirement. Which means you will not only receive the required information for Ethics CE, but be able to read it at your own pace, and gain more practical perspective about what it really means and how to apply it in your firm… from a leading voice in financial planning.
- The CFP Board’s mandated Ethics quiz for CFP CE credit.
Michael is often our first stop when researching a complex financial planning issue.
Many of us at my firm are faithful followers of Michael’s work, whether it’s the Weekend Reading for Financial Planners, the Nerd’s Eye View emails or the wonderful research that Kitces produces. The quality of Michael’s whitepapers on a broad range of topics is impressive. His concise executive summary and effective use of topic headers allows readers to zero in on the things that matter most to them. We also appreciate how well he uses charts and graphics to aid in the explanation complex topics. Thank you Michael!
The Kitces Report is an invaluable resource that offers both timely analysis and practical solutions to the pressing challenges of the day.
Combine that with the kind of technical deep dive found in the Kitces White Papers and you’ve got the one essential resource for any financial planner committed to practicing at the top of their game.
Straight Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:
If you just want check-the-box CE for free, we know there are plenty of alternatives out there from a wide range of industry magazines. But if you’re tired of getting “continuing education” that doesn’t actually teach you anything, and you really want to learn, we’re confident that you will find the cost to be quite reasonable for the takeaways you can apply with your clients!
The content on the Nerd’s Eye View blog is free and available to everyone. If all you want to do is read it for yourself, go for it.
The Members Section is where you go to earn CE credit for what you’re already reading. You also get access to our additional exclusive content, including the white papers, webinars, and other Member Resources.
If you’re already going to be reading the blog to stay at the top of your game as a financial planner, you might as well make a small investment in the Members Section to get CE for what you’re already reading!
Within minutes of your purchase, you’ll receive a transaction receipt and login details. Please give our system 10-15 minutes to process your order, and check your spam folder just in case your confirmation email gets filtered.
If at any point you have any questions, our customer service team is happily waiting nearby to answer any questions you may have! Simply email us at [email protected].
CE is reported directly to the CFP Board and the Investments & Wealth Institute (formerly IMCA) every week. IAR CE is automatically reported to NASAA every week only with the purchase of the $36/year IAR CE Add-On.
Completion certificates are also provided via email after each course is completed. You can use these for self-reporting to NAPFA, PACE for the American College (e.g., for CLU, ChFC, and RICP designations), and for CPA CPE credits, or to expedite self-reporting to CFP Board & IWI if you prefer.
Yes, we have group subscriptions available for multi-advisor firms. See https://www.kitces.com/group-subscriptions/ for further details.
Absolutely not! But we’ll be sad to see you go if you decide to cancel! You can cancel your monthly Basic membership at any time by emailing [email protected].
Basic subscriptions (payable monthly) are eligible for a refund for up to 7 days from the date of purchase or upon passing the first CE quiz, whichever comes first.
Annual Premier subscriptions can be cancelled anytime for a full refund in the first 90 days or after taking up to two CE quizzes.
Inside Information is the industry’s leading newsletter on practice management for financial advisors. Published by long-time industry commentator Bob Veres, Inside Information covers the latest practice management trends to help you run a better advisory business and be more successful!
Please note that this special offer is only for first-time subscribers to both Inside Information, and the Kitces.com Members Section.
Yes! We offer CFP Ethics CE credits when you sign up for our Premier or Inside Information Combo membership tiers.
There are no state insurance CE credits available on Kitces.com. However, you will receive a completion certificate after each course, which you can self-report for insurance CE credit if your state allows.
The American College requires its CLU, ChFC, RICP, WMCP, and other designees to self-report their CE credits for PACE. The CE credits in the Kitces.com Members Section are eligible for PACE, and a completion certificate will be provided for self-reporting purposes once the requisite CE quizzes are passed.
All CE credits available in the Kitces.com Members Section are eligible to satisfy NAPFA CE requirements. Completion certificates will be provided upon passing the requisite CE quiz that you may use for self-reporting your bi-annual NAPFA CE obligations.
No, our open-access pricing allows you to claim CE credit for all eligible designations – including CFP certificants, CIMA and CPWA designees, those with a CPA license, and any other organization that requires and allows for self-reporting of CE credits (e.g., NAPFA, or PACE for those with the CLU, ChFC, and RICP designations).
If you have any additional questions about the Kitces.com Membership or the signup process just email [email protected] and we’ll get right back to you.
We are approved by NASAA to be a content provider of IAR CE courses. Our Nerd’s Eye View blog content and certain The Kitces Report white papers are IAR CE eligible.
Our Course Catalog covers all 12 hours of the annual IAR CE requirements, including Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Practice and Products.
Notably, part of the IAR CE obligation is a mandatory “IAR CE reporting fee” of $3 per CE credit hour (or $36/year to report all 12 hours of CE), which must be collected by CE providers and then remitted to FINRA (the manager of the IAR CE reporting database) when the IAR CE is reported. (Advisers are not eligible for self-reporting their IAR CE; unfortunately, it must be reported by a CE provider, with the attendant $3/hour reporting fee.) As a result, Kitces.com is required to collect a $36/year “IAR CE Reporting Fee” for any advisers who choose to earn IAR CE with Kitces.com to cover the mandatory reporting costs being imposed on IARs.
The following states implemented the IAR CE model rule:
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Kentucky
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Mississippi
- Nevada
- North Dakota
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Vermont
- Washington DC
- Wisconsin
Abacus depends on The Kitces Report for mastery of complex topics – training our new and seasoned advisors.
Continuous learning is a must for a trusted advisor. Abacus depends on The Kitces Report for mastery of complex topics – training the new and the seasoned advisor. Each of us also appreciates The Kitces Report as a go-to resource for those “blue moon” questions that need an immediate answer.
