Our new course, Behavioural Finance for Financial Advisors, will give you useful insights into how you and your clients make decisions, and what biases might influence those decisions.
The course has been approved by the Financial Planning Standards Council for 2.5 CE credits in the Financial Planning category.
We're putting the finishing touches on our newest Course, Income Tax for Financial Advisors, which should be released during the week of December 16th, just in time for the year-end CE crunch! If you'd like to be notified when the Course is available for order, sign up for our newsletter (you can always unsubscribe at any time!). Just click the Newsletter link at the bottom of our website.
Format/Price: PDF File (150 pages), with online quiz required for CE credits. 12 CE hours for certified financial planners and insurance advisors. $149 plus tax.
Course Description: As a financial advisor, you need to know enough about our tax system to be able to advise your clients appropriately. Given that the Income Tax Act is now about 1,500 pages long and is constantly changing as a result of each Federal Budget, maintaining a competent level of knowledge is obviously a challenge.
This Course, written in plain English, will give you a solid tax foundation so that you can better service your clients, while also helping you recognize when you should refer a client to a tax specialist. It will also serve as a handy reference when you need to refresh your memory on a specific tax topic.
This Course is being published in two parts (Part 1 in December 2013, Part 2 in mid-2014). Part 1 consists of a 150-page textbook (PDF file) and an online Quiz, and it covers the following topics:
Overview of the Canadian tax system
Employment income and deductions
Property income (interest, dividends, rental income, income earned as specified member of a partnership) and deductions
We've recently overhauled our website and changed the way you order Courses.
Simplified Purchasing
Previously, you had to visit our website to review Course descriptions, and then login to our Learning Management System (LMS) to register and pay for your courses there.
Now you'll be able to complete your registrations right here at www.learningpartner.ca, using our upgraded online payment system for a more efficient and secure buying experience. You now also have the option of registering for several courses at once, instead of having to go through the purchase process multiple times. You can even buy a course and then assign it to someone else in your organization, or give it to your brother for Christmas!
Once you complete payment for a Course, you'll receive a confirmation email that serves as your receipt, followed shortly by a second email with instructions on how to access your Course (if you bought it for yourself), or how to assign it to another person (if you bought it for someone else).
Your Login Page
If you've already registered for a Course, you can click on "Work on a Course" in the menu above, to access the login page of the Learning Management System (LMS). If you bookmarked the login page previously, you may have to update your bookmark.
Your Username
Your username is now the email address that is associated with your student profile (if it wasn't already). If you're having trouble logging in, contact us and we'll get you straightened out.
Thanks for your patience as we make this transition!
Graduated Tax Rates for Testamentary Trusts to be Eliminated!
On June 3, 2013, the Department of Finance released a consultation paper to outline their proposal to eliminate graduated tax rates for testamentary trusts, because they "raise questions of fairness, and negatively affect government tax revenues." Comments will be received until December 2, 2013.
The government proposes to apply flat top-rate taxation to grandfathered inter vivos trusts and trusts created by will. The proposals also suggest that estates should benefit from graduated rates for only the first 36 months of the estate's administration, after which time the flat top-rate taxation would apply. These measures would apply to existing and new arrangements for 2016 and later taxation years.
These changes would significantly limit the estate planning opportunities currently provided by testamentary trusts and thus will be of considerable concern to any advisor involved in estate planning. To learn more about trusts and the latest proposed tax changes, consider taking our updated Trusts Course.