Course Overview
2024 Live Webinar Schedule
All live webinars are available for recorded, digital deliver purchase. Digital delivery will be fulfilled according to your registration selection.
| IRA, HSA, and Education Webinars | Dates Offered (all times listed are CST) |
| 2024 Legislative Update The rules and regulations governing IRAs, HSAs, and other tax favored savings accounts are constantly evolving, and can be challenging to keep up with. Rely on our industry experts to bring you up to date on recently proposed legislation and regulatory updates that may affect your organization and your clients. |
February 7 - 1:00 p.m. August 1 - 1:00 p.m. |
| Education: Comparing Coverdell ESAs, 529 Plans, UTMAs & UGMAs The cost of attending one of America's colleges is certainly not getting any cheaper. This course will review the various options for setting money aside to help pay for this high-cost venture. Learning objectives include discussing the concepts and benefits of Coverdell ESAs, tax benefits and allowable education expenses for ESA and 529 plans, the difference between 529 college savings plans and prepaid tuition plans and understand how UGMA and UTMA accounts have been used to fund college education. |
December 10 - 1:00 p.m. |
| HSA Fundamentals Our experts teach on the fundamentals of HSAs and basic HSA compliance rules. You will gain an understanding of HSA benefits, eligibility requirements, documentation and reporting requirements, contribution rules and limits, portability rules, and the difference between qualified and nonqualified distributions. For a deeper dive into HSAs, see HSAs – Advanced. |
February 8 - 1:00 p.m. |
| HSAs - Advanced Take your knowledge of HSAs to the next level with a review of difficult HSA issues regarding eligibility requirements, employer contributions, excess contributions, prohibited transactions, mistaken distributions, and reporting. For a refresher on HSAs, see HSA Fundamentals. |
March 14 - 10:00 a.m. |
| HSAs and Medicare For individuals with an HSA and soon to be eligible for Medicare, it’s critical for them to understand how enrolling in Medicare will affect their HSA. This presentation will help you gain an understanding of the crucial effect of Medicare enrollment timing on HSA contribution eligibility, and how individuals can use their HSAs to pay qualified medical expenses in retirement. |
November 12 - 1:00 p.m. |
| HSAs: Top 10 Wrap-up (2024 Edition) Our experts will outline the top 10 HSA topic eligibilities we get questions about on Ascensus’ consulting lines. Join this webinar to see what makes this year’s Top 10 list! |
October 31 - 10:00 a.m. |
| IRA and Employer Plan Rollovers This course provides answers to your clients’ rollover questions by explaining all the rollover opportunities, including evolving portability rules between IRAs and employer plans. You will learn how to capture, facilitate and report rollovers between employer plans and IRAs, as well as become familiar with new requirements from the DOL regarding making rollover recommendations to clients. |
Digital delivery only |
| IRA Beneficiary Distributions – Part 1 The SECURE Act made significant changes to IRA legislation, consequently adding a level of complexity to the beneficiary payout rules. Moreover, the IRS has come out with proposed RMD regulations providing guidance with respect to beneficiary options in light of the changes brought about by the SECURE Act. This class is part one of a two-part comprehensive course covering in-depth aspects of Traditional and Roth IRA beneficiary options addressing all the changes resulting from the SECURE Act and proposed RMD regulations, as well as essential topics such as beneficiary election deadlines, distribution rules and restrictions, and reporting requirements. |
May 2 - 1:00 p.m. |
| IRA Beneficiary Distributions – Part 2 Diving deeper into the beneficiary options covered in IRA Beneficiary Distributions – Part 1, in this session you will take a more hands-on approach into handling certain year-of-death requirements, beneficiary portability, separate accounting rules, the beneficiary determination deadline and beneficiary reporting requirements. For a deeper dive into advanced beneficiary issues, see IRAs: Handling Complex Death Claims and IRA Trust Beneficiary Issues and How To Handle Them. |
May 9 - 1:00 p.m. |
| IRA Contributions and Tax Time To prepare you for the often-hectic IRA contribution season, this course delivers necessary understanding of Traditional and Roth IRA contribution issues such as deadlines, limits, possible tax credits, certain extensions, and Traditional IRA deductibility rules. |
March 5 - 10:00 a.m. |
| IRA Distributions 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 experts provide the know how to get you there. |
October 15 - 1:00 p.m. |
| IRA Excess Contributions and Recharacterizations You will learn everything you need to know about excess contributions, including handling recharacterizations. This course covers how excess contributions occur, different excess correction methods, and how you can help an IRA owner correct an excess contribution. |
September 26 - 10:00 a.m. |
| IRA Fundamentals 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. |
February 22 - 1:00 p.m. |
| IRA Issues: Top 10 Wrap-up (2024 Edition) Our experts will outline the top 10 IRA topics we get questions about on Ascensus’ consulting lines. Join this webinar to see what makes this year’s Top 10 list! |
May 7 - 10:00 a.m. |
| IRA Legal Issues 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 |
July 11 - 10:00 a.m. |
| IRA Reporting Requirements 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. |
March 26 - 1:00 p.m. |
| IRA Required Minimum Distributions RMD rules have changed as a result of new legislation enacted and new life expectancy tables published in recent years. 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. |
March 7 - 1:00 p.m. |
| IRA Transfers and Rollovers 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. |
March 21 - 10:00 a.m. |
| IRA Trust Beneficiary Issues and How to Handle Them Trust beneficiary questions are one of the most common topics that come into our consulting lines. Trusts can be used for many reasons, such as estate planning, avoiding probate and maintaining control over assets. As such, designating a trust as an IRA beneficiary has become a popular estate planning strategy. During this course we'll review current guidance for distributing IRA assets to a trust beneficiary. We also cover compliance concerns that are frequently encountered, and the risks financial organizations should be aware of in this legal grey-area. |
August 8 - 10:00 a.m. |
| IRA Withholding Rules - And Getting them Right Are you confident that you are adhering to all federal and state withholding rules? Compliance reviews frequently performed by Ascensus show that not all financial organizations understand IRA withholding rules. The SECURE Act significantly increased penalties for improper withholding notifications, and the IRS has also recently changed withholding notices and requirements depending on the type of IRA distribution (are you using the right form today?) This course explains 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, how to handle withholding requirements for foreign individuals and what the potential penalties are for improperly following the withholding rules. |
October 24 - 10:00 a.m. |
| IRAs and Employer Plans: Recognizing Prohibited Transactions IRA owners, employer plan participants, and financial organizations can face significant IRS fines and tax penalties 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. |
September 17 - 1:00 p.m. |
| IRAs: Is Your Program In Compliance? Ascensus conducts countless compliance audits for financial organizations across the U.S., oftentimes finding issues that could result in substantial IRS penalties due to non-compliance with IRS requirements. In this course, find out about the most common “points of failure” that our auditors have found, and which aspects of your IRA program you may discover are out of compliance. The course will guide you through these compliance concerns and provide checklists to help manage the compliance process, to help you avoid common pitfalls that may end up costing you thousands of dollars in IRS penalties. |
May 16 - 1:00 p.m. |
| IRAs: Establishing and Amending For the first time in about 20 years, due to recent enacted legislation, the IRS is requiring all IRAs to be amended. Are you familiar with the amendment requirements and the process for amending your documents? 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 them. |
February 6 - 3:00 p.m. September 12 - 1:00 p.m. |
| IRAs: Handling Complex Death Claims Financial organizations are frequently faced with handling 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. |
July 9 - 1:00 p.m. December 5 - 1:00 p.m. |
| Roth IRAs: What You Need to Know Learn all aspects of the Roth IRA, including features and benefits and how the Roth IRA stands out from other retirement savings accounts. Leave this course with a more thorough understanding of the tax advantages, contribution eligibility rules, reporting requirements, portability options, and advanced distribution issues, including the often asked about Roth IRA loophole. |
February 15 - 1:00 p.m. |
| Fraud - What You Need to Know Has your organization experienced account owner identity theft? Have retirement or other tax-favored savings plan assets been withdrawn that weren't requested by the account owner? The DOL has issued guidance on cybersecurity. Is your organization applying the recommended best practices? In this course, we'll provide an overview of DOL recommendations as well as how your organization can help limit fraud exposure by applying proper compliance procedures and educating account owners. |
July 18 - 1:00 p.m. |
| Employer Plan Webinars | |
| Employer Plans: SEP Plans Are you missing out on opportunities with small business owners who could recognize substantial tax and retirement benefits by setting up a SEP plan? Join this webinar to see why so many small business owners establish SEP plans, especially small, family-owned or independent businesses. SEP plans are easy to establish and maintain and offer business owners a chance to make deductible contributions at their discretion. The employer contribution limit is greater than the regular IRA contribution limit and does not prevent IRA owners from making regular eligible contributions to their IRAs. This course provides an in-depth review of SEP plans, required plan documents, eligibility requirements, contribution limits, and distribution rules. |
Digital delivery only |
| Employer Plans: SIMPLE IRA Plans SIMPLE IRA plans are ideal for small employers who are looking for an easy-to-maintain plan that allows employees to save for retirement out of their own paycheck. SIMPLE IRA plans, however, are not that simple! This course reviews what you need to know when it comes to being the trustee or custodian of SMIPLE IRA plans, while adhering to IRS requirements to remain compliant, including operational procedures, required plan documents and participant notices, eligibility requirements, contribution limits, portability, and distribution rules. |
Digital delivery only |
| 403(b)/457(b) Fundamentals This presentation will provide answers to common industry questions related to 403(b) and 457(b) plans and plan operations. It will also address the latest trends and challenges in 403(b) and 457(b) plan administration. |
May 23 |
