CONTINUING EDUCATION
Smartria and Kitces.com | August 09, 2022
Smartria®, a powerful, easy-to-use cloud-based software solution designed to meet the specialized compliance management needs of investment advisors, compliance teams, operations teams, consultants, and attorneys, has announced a partnership with Kitces.com to provide online education content for CE credits through the Smartria platform to address the North American Securities Administrators Association’s (NASAA) Investment Adviser Representative Continuing Education (IAR CE) Model Rule. Kitces.com is home to the Nerd’s Eye View financial planning industry blog published by Michael Kitces, and a leading provider of advanced education for financial advisors.
“Smartria is proud to partner with Michael Kitces and Kitces.com, the preeminent industry thought leader in advisor education, We were very deliberate in our selection—we wanted to work with a partner who shared our vision of software as a partnership and was committed to helping us deliver a solution that meets our clients’ needs at scale. Smartria’s partnership with Kitces.com is a natural fit as we continue to innovate our compliance platform with new and distinctive offerings.”
-Mac Bartine, CEO of Smartria
Under the partnership, investment advisers who activate Smartria’s new IAR CE feature will gain instant access directly from the Smartria dashboard to all of the Continuing Education content provided by the Kitces.com Members Section, including not only the Nerd’s Eye View blog content, but Kitces white papers and webinars as well, which can fulfill both their new IAR CE obligation, as well as crossover CE credit for CFP certification, CPA licensees, Enrolled Agents, and advisors with advanced designations from the Investments and Wealth Institute and the American College. Future integrations under the partnership will facilitate automated firm-wide tracking and reporting in Smartria of all an investment adviser’s Kitces-earned IAR CE credits for all of their team members, to ensure annual compliance as additional states pass the NASAA Model Rule and implement their own IAR CE obligations in the coming years.
As financial advisors, we’re already subject to a myriad of overlapping rules and regulations, and overlapping Continuing Education obligations, and so as soon as the NASAA Model Rule was finalized last year, we began the process to qualify our Kitces.com educational content for IAR CE in addition to all of the other financial advisor licenses and designations we already covered, With CE demands continuing to rise, we’ve been developing our own systems to be able to better integrate with existing advisor platforms to facilitate multi-designation CE, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Mac and the rapidly growing Smartria team to power their IAR CE solution, as our first CE integration partner,said Michael Kitces, Chief Financial Planning Nerd at Kitces.com.
NASAA’s Model Rule was announced on November 30, 2020. Under the rule, an investment adviser representative is required to complete 12 CE credits annually to maintain their IAR registration. The rule applies to all registered IARs of both state-registered and federal covered investment advisers. Compliance begins with existing IARs and newly registered IARs in states that have adopted the model rule as of Jan. 1, 2022, which currently include Maryland, Mississippi, and Vermont.
About Smartria
Smartria is a leading compliance software platform for RIAs, hybrid RIAs and RIA networks. The firm’s software excels at making the complex and often frustrating world of regulatory compliance simple to manage and easy to understand. Smartria’s unique roles for compliance consultants and distributed management of large corporations make its solution able to handle any compliance problem for any sized company. For more information, please visit www.Smartria.com.
About Kitces.com
Kitces.com publishes the #1 financial planning industry blog, Nerd’s Eye View, and provides a wide range of advanced educational content for financial advisors through both nerdy long-from educational articles, research white papers, in-person and virtual live events, on-demand and livestream webinars, and online courses. The Kitces.com Members Section provides continuing education credits for a wide range of financial advisor licenses and advanced professional designations, including CFP certification designations from the Investments & Wealth Institute and American College, CPE for CPAs and Enrolled Agents, investment adviser representative (IAR) CE obligations, and more.
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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
HVL | June 07, 2022
HVL, the venture studio founded by experiences B2B and SaaS experts, has announced the launch of its newest cohort based coaching and online community platform, AppThink.
"Our startup ecosystem is growing in vibrancy. On-ramps that equip first-time founders are more necessary now than ever. Naturally, more people in our community are curious about starting software and tech-enabled businesses. AppThink exists to harness that curiosity by guiding aspiring founders through the fundamentals of making the right decisions early. This includes understanding how to validate an idea and bring it to market with confidence. As an early-stage venture, AppThink is uniquely positioned to "build-in-public" and model the virtuous cycle of ideation, testing, and iteration for our cohort members."
- Kellie Clark, CEO of AppThink
AppThink offers a cohort-oriented learning platform with live online work sessions and a self-paced curriculum. Aspiring founders will be taught the foundation of identifying consumers, testing business assumptions, and exploring options to create an MVP without coding.
"I'm excited to see what's in store for the aspiring founders who engage AppThink. AppThink's curriculum and approach adds value to early-stage founders individually, but it is also poised to contribute immense value to the energy and growth of our tech ecosystem."
- Shegun Otulana, Founder of HVL
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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
HMH | June 13, 2022
HMH announced that Writable with HMH Into Literature was named 2022 Best Reading/Writing/Literature Instructional Solution for Grades 9-12 as part of the annual SIIA CODiE Awards. This is the second time Writable with HMH Into Literature has earned this CODiE award, demonstrating the solution's remarkable creativity in satisfying students' literacy requirements and preparing them for success.
HMH Into Literature, HMH's core ELA solution for learners in grades 6-12, delivers research-based reading and writing teaching paired with relevant, real literature to guarantee that students develop and strengthen their critical thinking abilities. Writable is a guided writing practice solution for grades 3 to 12 that fosters the development of more autonomous, thoughtful, and purposeful writers. With over a thousand pre-built writing projects and AI tools, Writable facilitates the prompt delivery of structured teacher and peer feedback, accelerates grading, and monitors development across the curriculum and district.
Together, Writable and HMH Into Literature provide essential reading and writing teaching and meaningful, individualized practice opportunities for the development of all students. AI-functionality assists students earlier in the writing process towards more meaningful modifications. In addition, Writable with HMH Into Literature provides students with the necessary framework and tiered questions to facilitate careful reading and text analysis.
"We are so proud to recognize this year's honorees – the best of the best – that provide solutions to many of the critical challenges facing learners today – from access and equity to personalized and tailored learning and beyond. Congratulations to all of this year's CODiE Award winners!"
-SIIA President Jeff Joseph
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) bestows the CODiE Awards, which recognize excellence in leading technology products and services, on items demonstrating innovation, vision, and overall industry impact. Among the hundreds of applications for this year's CODiE Awards, the HMH-linked solutions Waggle and Amira were also finalists. As a result, the CODiE Awards have established themselves as the most prestigious peer-recognized program in the business and edtech sectors.
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