Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) Ethics Course (Pre-Approved for # CSA CE Credits)

Learning Objectives

• To understand the ethical duties that financial advisors owe to clients in general and the specific duties owed to senior clients.
• To discuss the types of information that advisors must obtain to ensure the suitability of a product recommendation.
• To analyze the various physical, psychological, and cognitive changes individuals face as they age.
• To explain what financial advisors can do to help ensure client understanding of financial concepts and products.
• To demonstrate an understanding of the prevalence of cognitive impairment among older adults.
• To identify the warning signs that may indicate a client is suffering from cognitive impairment.
• To explain the tools that financial advisors can use to protect clients who may be suffering from cognitive impairment.
• To analyze the various red flags that may indicate a person is being financially exploited or abused.
• To inspect how advisors can protect older clients from financial abuse.
• To discuss the various red flags that may indicate a person is being financially exploited or abused.

Course Description

The course is Pre-Approved for # CSA CE Credits by CSA Certification Council.

Financial advisors are undoubtedly familiar with the financial planning issues that older clients face: the need to maximize Social Security benefits, develop an income stream to last throughout retirement, ensure that health care costs are covered, and ultimately develop an estate plan to transfer assets to heirs in a tax-efficient manner.

However, advisors working in the senior market must also consider another important issue:

• What happens if their clients become cognitively impaired in the future? 
• Have their client's taken steps to protect their assets? 
• Do they have a trustworthy person who can step in to help? 
• If a financial advisor suspects that a client’s cognitive abilities are declining or have diminished to the point that he or she lacks the legal capacity to execute a transaction, what should the advisor do? 

To ethically serve the wave of aging baby boomers, financial advisors must be prepared to address the important issue of diminished capacity. Those who understand the signs of cognitive decline and develop protocols and strategies for working with such impairment can help ensure that clients are protected during a vulnerable stage in their lives.

Major topics covered in this CPE webinar:

• Normal age-related changes that occur as people get older.
• The issue of financial capacity and the red flags that may indicate its decline.
• The proactive measures advisors can take if diminished capacity in a client is suspected. 
• Examining the growing problem of financial abuse of the elderly.
• The steps that advisors can take to protect clients and mitigate their own risk of liability.  

In this CPE Ethics course, we’ll learn about the general ethical duties that financial advisors owe to clients as well as the enhanced duties that are required when working with senior clients.

Overview

• Ethically working with senior clients

  7 mins
• Fiduciary standards

  26 mins
• Suitability of recommendations

  38 mins
• Most important things for clients to understand

  51 mins
• Change in financial capability

  76 mins
• Specific rules - Trust

  120 mins
• Specific rules - Professionalism

  142 mins