Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (CTFA) Training

Our Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (CTFA) training program helps professionals to study and prepare for the CTFA exam. The program consists of three courses totaling 13 days. It can be completed as quickly as one year or extended over a three-year period.

Course eligibility and class size

To enroll, a person must have:

• A minimum of three (3) years experience in personal trust and completion of an ICB-approved personal trust training program; OR
• Five (5) years experience in personal trust and a bachelor’s degree; OR
• Ten (10) years experience in personal trust

The ideal class size is 30 or fewer students. The content can be customized to your staff training needs, including accelerated for those who excelled on the pre-test.

Topics covered

Fiduciary Responsibilities & Trust Activities

• Fundamental tenets of trust law (fiduciary powers, duties, and responsibilities in particular)
• Types of fiduciary relationships and activities that are essential to day-to-day account administration
• Trustee responsibilities relative to investing trust assets (i.e., the prudent person and prudent investor rule), specific securities laws, OCC Regulation 9, and relevant ethical issues

Personal Finance, Insurance & Estate Planning

• Non-legal aspects of personal finance, including recommendation and implementation of basic personal finance strategies related to wealth accumulation and distribution, tax planning, asset transfers, and retirement planning
• Assessment of client’s insurance program, which can impact a personal financial plan, including life, property, disability, casualty, and health insurance
• Estate planning techniques, including the disposition of assets during a client’s lifetime through a planned gift program as well as after death through a testamentary disposition

Tax Law

• Internal Revenue Code requirements related to taxation of trusts, personal income, and employee benefits
• Individual and charitable trust taxes, the scope and requirements of gift taxes, estate taxes, and generation-skipping transfer taxes
• Advising clients on the federal tax consequences of various financial strategies, including the acquisition and disposition of property

Investment Management

• Economic and market variables and their effect on investment decisions
• Portfolio management, including various types of investments and securities instruments, client objectives and constraints, performance measurement, and ethical issues dealing with unfair trading of securities, conflict of interest, the prudent man standard, etc.

Ethics – covers both Advisory and Fiduciary duties

• Advisory
  • Unauthorized practice of law
  • Conflict of interest
  • Confidentiality
  • Undue influence
  • Related parties
• Fiduciary
  • Duty of loyalty