Financial planners who focus on U.S. and Canada cross-border issues will need CE credits in both countries, and Kitces.com may assist with that. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckDARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
U.S. financial planning guru Michael Kitces is entering the Canadian continuing education (CE) space for financial advisors.
Starting in November, members of the Financial Planning Association of Canada (FPAC) will have access to his content on Kitces.com.
FPAC members can read the blogs, articles and quarterly research papers Mr. Kitces publishes on his website, as well as view his webinars, to obtain CE credits from FP Canada, says Adam Chapman, FPAC’s incoming chair of education.
“A lot of [financial] planners already read Michael Kitces,” he says. “So, now, you can read an article you might have read anyway, fill out a quiz at the end and get a CE credit for it.”
Michael Kitces, publisher of Kitces.com.Supplied
FPAC president Julia Chung describes Kitces.com content as highly influential and knowledgeable, and says the association was interested in packaging his catalogue as part of a benefit to holding membership.
“Even though Michael is based in the U.S., there’s so much of his research that absolutely lends itself to Canadian financial planning practices,” she says. “Many financial planners, including me, have been following and learning from Michael for a really long time.”
Mr. Chapman says much of Kitces.com’s content isn’t country-specific. Articles in topics such as practice management, client communication, behavioural finance and retirement trends are universal.
Financial planners who focus on U.S. and Canada cross-border issues will need CE credits in both countries, and Kitces.com may assist with that because many cross-border advisors will have both U.S. and Canadian designations, Mr. Chapman says.
“They need to know the U.S. tax law and estate planning elements,” he says.
To remain in good standing with FP Canada, certified financial planners need 25 hours of CE a year, with qualified associate financial planners requiring 12 hours a year. FP Canada is the national non-profit with a public interest mandate, and FPAC is a member-driven association.
Canada was calling
Mr. Kitces says FPAC members will have access to his quarterly research papers, which tend to focus on the financial planning profession itself. Specific topics include advisor marketing, technology, productivity and overall well-being.
He says that extending his content to Canada made good business sense as he has started receiving requests from Canadian financial planners in recent years to accredit his material for CE credits.
“We never registered our content in Canada, as we didn’t realize we had so many of them reading [it],” he says.
He contacted FP Canada to register the content and obtain accreditation approval. FP Canada accreditation made the most sense, Mr. Kitces says, as his content focuses on financial planning.
Mr. Kitces, who is based in Reston, Va., was an award-winning, practising financial planner for years before turning to educate other financial planners about the importance of advancing their knowledge.
His business started as a monthly financial planning newsletter for advisors. The content expanded to a blog, training courses and webinars.
He says Kitces.com has more than 200,000 unique viewers a month. He estimates that the collection of articles is worth more than 100 hours of CE, with an additional 30 hours added every year.
He adds that 20,000 U.S. financial planners get their CE from his website. Although the content is readily available for anyone to read on the site, U.S. members pay a fee to use the content for CE accreditation.