* Price covers the $6 IAR CE reporting fee.

Course Description

Clients don’t make decisions in spreadsheets—they decide in the real world, under uncertainty, with emotions, habits, and mental shortcuts. This course translates core behavioral-finance ideas into practical adviser workflows you can use immediately: diagnosing client biases, designing “choice architecture” that nudges better decisions, and communicating through market cycles to reduce performance-chasing, panic selling, and other costly errors. You’ll work with scripts, and template language you can adapt to your practice, culminating in a behavioral investment policy statement and an ongoing monitoring plan that fits your firm’s compliance framework and NASAA CE expectations.

Difficulty Level: Foundational

IAR CE: 2 credits in Products and Practice (Course # C28063)

CFP CE: 2 hours in General CE (Course # 344342)

Year Released: 2026

Course curriculum

    1. Course Instructions

    2. FINRA Reporting

    1. How Investors Decide: System 1 & System 2, Prospect Theory

    2. Core Biases: Overconfidence, Confirmation, Anchoring & Adjustment

    3. Risk Tolerance vs. Risk Capacity vs. Risk Perception

    4. Module 1 Quiz

    1. Accumulation Phase: Naïve Diversification, Home Bias, Mental Accounting

    2. Retirement/Distribution: Loss Aversion, Myopic Loss Aversion, Annuity Aversion

    3. Market Narratives & Herding: Fear/Greed, Recency, Availability

    4. Module 2 Quiz

    1. Diagnose & Design

    2. Choice Architecture & Portfolio Rules

    3. Communication & Expectation-Setting

    4. Module 3 Quiz

    1. Bull-Market Case: Return-Chasing & Overconfidence

    2. Bear-Market Case: Panic Selling & Loss Aversion

    3. Ethics, Supervision, and Records

    4. Module 4 Quiz

    1. Course Conclusion and Key Takeaways

    2. Course Survey

About this course

  • $19.90
  • 21 lessons
  • IAR CE 2 Credits in Products and Practice
  • $6 IAR CE reporting fee included

Course Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, Investment Adviser Representatives will be able to:

Identify common investor biases (e.g., loss aversion, overconfidence, anchoring, herd behavior) and explain how they distort portfolio decisions.

Diagnose client-specific behavioral patterns using structured discovery questions, intake surveys, and observable decision clues.

Apply adviser strategies—framing, choice architecture, guardrails, and disciplined rebalancing—to mitigate biases and improve client outcomes.

Communicate effectively across market cycles with scripts and visuals that reduce recency bias, herding, and panic responses.

Integrate behavioral controls into the IPS (or BIPS), client review cadence, and workflows that align with supervisory procedures and documentation standards.

Evaluate case scenarios to determine appropriate adviser responses, documentation, and client coaching steps.

According to NASAA guidelines, to successfully complete the course, you must achieve a score of at least 70% on the final assessment. You have up to three attempts to reach this score. If you do not pass after three attempts, you will need to retake the entire course before you can try the assessment again.

Course Instructions

NASAA does not endorse any particular provider of CE courses. The content of the course and any views expressed are my/our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASAA or any of its member jurisdictions.

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