Basic IRAs

IRAs A-Z gives attendees a comprehensive overview of fundamental IRA concepts.

This six-week online course provides the tools to build a solid IRA knowledge base and become certified as a Certified IRA Specialist (CIS) I. Topics include establishing an IRA, contributions, Traditional and Roth IRA distributions, and portability.

Financial organizations are frequently dealt beneficiary death claims and may wonder how to resolve some of their more complex beneficiary issues, where there may be no or limited regulatory guidance. This comprehensive course covers in-depth aspects of Traditional and Roth IRA beneficiary issues and best practices on how to handle death claims while mitigating risk. This course covers advanced aspects of IRA disclaimers, distributions to trust beneficiaries, reporting issues, disputes, minors as beneficiaries, and other compliance concerns.

Although financial organization personnel do not give tax advice to their clients, IRA administrators still may find themselves fielding legal questions. Generally, there is no IRS guidance on how to handle IRA legal issues. This course covers some of the more common legal issues that may arise with IRAs, such as powers of attorney, guardianships, creditors, beneficiary issues, and divorce; as well as how to handle these types of transactions to help mitigate risk for your organization

The SECURE Act made significant changes to IRA rules, that included adding complexity to the beneficiary rules. Is your financial organization finding it difficult to understand the options that are available to IRA beneficiaries? This is part one of a two-part comprehensive course covering in-depth aspects of Traditional and Roth IRA beneficiary options that addresses all the changes resulting from the SECURE Act, including essential topics of beneficiary election deadlines, distribution rules and restrictions, reporting requirements, and year-of-death required minimum distribution issues.

Ascend is the industry’s most comprehensive education conference offering basic and advanced courses on: retirement, health, and education savings plans and industry trends.

For the first time in nearly 20 years, due to the SECURE Act, the IRS is requiring all IRAs to be amended in 2022. To avoid IRS penalties, financial organizations must use the correct and properly amended IRA opening documents. This course provides information on how to properly establish Traditional and Roth IRAs and how to amend IRAs.

IRA owners, employer plan participants, and financial organizations can face significant IRS fines and tax ramifications result of a prohibited transaction. This course examines the prohibited transaction rules and common exemptions as they apply to IRAs and employer plans, and financial organizations. Join this session to learn how to identify and prevent prohibited transactions, and possible ways to resolve them once they occur.

This course is a must if you are new to IRAs to help build a foundation of the most common IRA transactions and rules. Learn the fundamentals of Traditional and Roth IRAs from contributions and distributions to portability—including the rules associated with rollovers between employer plans and IRAs. For a deeper dive into IRAs, see IRA Advanced.

Understanding the complex withholding and reporting requirements applicable to Traditional and Roth IRA distributions is critical to maintaining a compliant IRA program. From federal tax implications, including how the early distribution penalty tax applies to IRA owners to how IRA distributions are paid out, our expertise provides the know how to get you there.

Are you confident that you’re adhering to all federal and state withholding rules? The SECURE Act significantly increased penalties for improper withholding notifications. This course covers the requirements for both federal and state withholding, how to properly notify IRA owners of their withholding rights, what to do with the withheld assets, the foreign withholding requirements, and the potential penalties for improperly following the withholding rules.

With IRA reporting requirements constantly changing, it is vital for your financial organization to stay up to date on the latest requirements. This course provides an in-depth review of key IRA reporting topics, including required minimum distribution statements, fair market value statements, account statements, and IRS Forms 1099-R and 5498. Our experts also review the electronic reporting requirements, beneficiary reporting requirements, procedures for requesting extensions, and IRS penalties for improper reporting.

RMD rules changed recently resulting from the SECURE Act, the CARES Act, and most recently the new life expectancy tables. RMDs make up a large part of most financial organizations’ IRA services and will continue to increase as baby boomers age. Attend this course to ensure that your organization is handling RMDs according to the most current rules. Course topics include RMD calculations, excess accumulation penalty taxes, financial organization responsibilities, and reporting.

Retirement plan portability is one of the most popular topics fielded on our consulting lines. Attending this course will help ensure that you are up to date and handling these transactions properly. You will learn the difference between transfers and rollovers and direct and indirect rollovers, as well as acquire an understanding of Roth retirement plan assets and portability with Roth IRAs.

eLearning provides you with access to convenient and effective training through an online library of courses on qualified retirement plans, Traditional and Roth IRAs, SEP and SIMPLE IRA plans, heath savings accounts, and education savings accounts. Individual courses are available through our learning management system (LMS), Ascensus University, or for use within your LMS.

IRA Essentials OnDemand is the perfect solution for those who need an introduction to IRAs but cannot attend a face-to-face training session. IRA reference materials, job aids, quizzes, and videos blend together to create an immersive educational experience. Explore six educational tracks: Introduction to IRAs, Establishing an IRA, Funding, Portability, IRA Distributions, and Reporting.

Get the benefit of our experienced instructors and extensive curriculum without leaving the office with our on-site IRA workshops. Our IRA Essentials, Advanced IRAs, and Frontline Fundamentals curriculum offer flexibility and customization and give practical understanding of critical rules and operational issues.

For our IRA Administration subscribers, Ascensus has two IRAdirect® workshops that give general users and advanced users the foundation they need to work confidently with this software.

IRAdirect® is a registered trademark of Ascensus, LLC.

Fulfill your career, obtain IRA knowledge and skills, and become indispensable to your organization by earning two professional designations in less than 12 months.

Step 1: Register for IRA University and the CIS I exam.
Step 2: Register for for Ascend and the CIS II exam.
Step 3: Participate in the IRA University and pass the CIS I exam.
Step 4: Attend Ascend and pass the CIS II exam.

Click the Register for IRA University button to register for IRA University or to learn more about IRA FastTrack.

In this exclusive webinar, we’ll summarize the key provisions—so you don’t have to, identify what’s most relevant to your organization, and share the timing of when your organization should be ready for change.