2022 was a year that began with high hopes as households were slowly re-emerging from pandemic shutdowns, markets were reaching new highs, and most advisory firms had growing momentum. Within just a few months, though, Omicron had led to another wave of at least partial shutdowns, inflation began to rear its ugly head in a way not seen in decades, and the market fell to its worst first-half start since 1970. Yet despite this – and perhaps even because of it – advisory firms are putting an ever-greater focus on financial planning in 2022, as a way to both show value to clients in the midst of difficult market returns, and, more broadly, to help clients navigate the current environment. Which we’ve witnessed first-hand here at Kitces.com, as the advisor community has engaged in record numbers with some of our recent articles on how best to advise clients through it all, and capitalize on the opportunities along the way.
And so, as we enter the second half of the year, we want to give all of you, our Readers and Members, an update on what we’re doing to continue to serve and support the advisor community through a challenging year, and some of the new enhancements you’ll see from us in the months to come.
First and foremost, we’re excited to announce that, effective immediately, all of our Nerd’s Eye View blog and recorded webinar CE from 2022 (and all future CE) is now eligible for the new IAR CE requirements. Which is relevant already in 2022 for any advisors who are registered in one of the 3 states (as their home state, or simply a state in which they have more than the de minimis number of clients) that has already rolled out the IAR CE obligation – Maryland, Mississippi, and Vermont – and will be relevant for far more advisors in the years to come as more states implement the NASAA Model Rule for IAR CE (with Arkansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Washington DC already expected to enact their IAR CE requirements for 2023). All advisors in the Kitces Members Section will be able to earn IAR CE in addition to their credits for CFP, CPA, EA, and various IWI and American College designations as part of their ongoing membership fee (though notably, NASAA is imposing a $3/credit, or $36/year, reporting fee that Kitces will also have to collect on behalf of advisors and remit for their reporting).
In addition, we’ve also just launched a major update to our popular Course on “How to Find Planning Opportunities When Reviewing a Client’s Tax Return”, which has been refreshed to include the latest IRS forms and schedules, new educational videos from our very own Jeff Levine, and improvements to the Course navigation and supporting materials (downloadable video transcripts for your highlighting or future reference!). And in the coming month, we’ll be rolling out our newest course on “How To Spot Planning Opportunities when Reviewing Estate Planning Documents”. Because, the reality is, while we may learn about tax and estate planning in our CFP classes, there’s remarkably little to show us as advisors how best to navigate the reams of tax returns and estate documents that we collect from clients to figure out what their opportunities are! A gap our Kitces Courses aim to fill!
We’re also gearing up for our upcoming Kitces Financial Planning Value Summit, after more than 1,000 advisors registered for our first Value Summit last year! This year’s Summit will be held on Thursday, December 8th – Save the date! – and we’re already accepting submissions for those who have a unique financial planning value-add that they’d be willing to showcase to other advisors. Notably, this is a paid speaking opportunity for advisors whose submissions are chosen to be featured at the Summit!
In the coming months, we’re also looking to make more updates to our popular AdvisorTech Directory that launched earlier this year at FinTech.Kitces.com. Stay tuned for new data on each software provider that shows how often they’re used by other advisors, and the Satisfaction scores that other advisors are giving the software. Along with, in partnership with our Consulting Consortium partner Craig Iskowitz of the Ezra Group, a new “Integration Score” to make it easier for advisors to understand how well various AdvisorTech tools actually integrate with other software solutions!
And given all of this growth, we’re also proud to welcome several recent new hires to the Kitces team – including Director of Engagement Steve Viner, Curriculum DesigNerd Shelitha Smodic, and Education Systems Manager Ryan Taylor – and have announced (or are about to launch) several new openings as well, including Director of Advisor Education, an Instructional DesigNerd, an Associate Financial Planning Nerd, and an upcoming role to become our full-time Director of Research. Those who are interested (or have a friend or family member who might be!) can check out our Career Opportunities page for more!
All in pursuit of our mission – Making Financial Advicers Better, and More Successful – through our ongoing focus on Navigational resources, Educational insights, Research on advicers, and Development of advicer skills. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve you within and especially in the midst of a challenging year, and welcome your ongoing feedback about what else we can do to serve you even better!
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