In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, ESI’s hours will be as follows:
Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 23rd: ESI and the Market will be closed.
Friday, November 24th: Markets close at 1:00pm ET. ESI phones will be turned off at 1:00pm ET.
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Maximize your efficiency and streamline client interactions with Calendly – a dynamic scheduling tool that eliminates the back-and-forth of meeting coordination, freeing up your time to focus on what matters most: your clients. With direct integration into your calendar, Calendly displays your real-time availability to clients, allowing them to book consultations at their convenience without the risk of double-booking.
Calendly’s automated reminders and follow-ups help prevent missed meetings or no shows, and by reducing administrative tasks, Calendly empowers you to concentrate on providing top-tier financial advice and growing your practice. You could save 5 hours a week after integrating Calendly into your practice.
Calendly is available for ESI reps and advisers for $25 a month via commission deduct.
Note: You must receive official approval from NLG Ad Review before you can begin using your Calendly page.
Any changes or updates to your Calendly page must be pre-approved by NLG Ad Review. This includes adding a service, location, or any other change.
You must submit for review the addition of Calendly onto your compliance approved materials such as your social media sites, website, email and marketing materials.
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During the holiday season, and throughout the year, many registered representatives (“RRs”) and associated persons (i.e. fingerprinted persons) give or receive gifts and/or entertainment. While industry rules and regulations allow for the giving and receiving of business-related gifts and entertainment, there are certain limitations and reporting responsibilities that apply. Business-related gifts or entertainment, given or received, must be reported to your supervisor and Compliance through Star Compliance (“Star”).
What to Report/What Not to Report
Gifts
Gifts to/from clients, business partners, product sponsors, and prospects must be reported.
The following are NOT required to be reported:
Entertainment
Entertainment of customers or prospective customers must be reasonable and not so expensive it raises a suggestion of unethical conduct.
The limitation on gifts and gratuities does not apply to usual business entertainment such as dinners or sporting events where you host the entertainment, though such expenses should be reasonable. “Entertainment” includes a broad range of activities such as trips, parties, and other activities where you host someone related to the Firm’s business. Questions regarding the reasonableness of proposed entertainment and related expenses should be referred to Compliance.
You may invite clients to entertainment or accept entertainment from a product sponsor provided that:
Prior approval is required for entertainment being given or received that:
To obtain prior approval for entertainment, you must complete an Entertainment Declaration request via Star Compliance, and submit it to your BOS (or their appointed delegate), who will approve and forward the request to Compliance for review and maintenance. You may not engage in the entertainment until approval is received.
How to Report
Go to https://nationallife.starcompliance.com:
Delegation of Reporting
If you wish to have a non-registered fingerprinted person (“NRF”) complete your gift logs, they may enter them for you in Star as a “proxy”. To have them designated as your gift proxy in Star, please email ESICompliance@nationallife.com with their contact information.
Questions?
If you have questions, please feel free to contact Ben Zarzycki in ESI Compliance at 802-229-3659 or bzarzycki@nationallife.com.
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Before the Thanksgiving holiday, be sure you are on track with these important dates.
Important Dates: 2023 Premiere Select Retirement Account Annual Maintenance Fee Cycle
November 1st – 18h, 2023 – Collection Period – Accounts that have instructions on file to pay the annual maintenance fee via journal, EFT or IBP may have the fee deducted.
November 20, 2023 – Collection Day – Unpaid fees are posted to customer accounts. Accounts with insufficient cash will result in a cash debit balance.
January 5th, 2023, through January 27th, 2023 – Liquidation/Write Offs – Accounts with eligible securities will be liquidated to cover uncollected fees or written off and charged to the advisor on record (if less than $25).
Compliance Deadlines
November 15, 2023 – 2024 renewal packets must be received at ESI Licensing
November 30, 2023 – Deadline for completing FINRA Regulatory Element CE
December 31, 2023 – Deadline for Annual Compliance Meeting completion
February 28, 2024 – Deadline for Firm Element CE completion
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ESI Compliance
Field Notice 2023-21 Action Required: FINRA CE Changes
Issued July 25, 2023
Action Required: FINRA CE Changes
Effective January 1, 2023, FINRA published its revised Rule 1240 – Continuing Education (“Rule”). The Rule implemented some significant changes to FINRA’s continuing education (“CE”) requirements. This notice describes how these changes impact you and what steps you’ll need to take to maintain compliance with the new Rule.
In summary, all registered representative and registered principals must complete the FINRA Regulatory Element CE on an ANNUAL basis. The deadline to complete the CE Course is 11/30/23.
Regulatory Element CE
Effective January 1, 2023, all registered persons are required to complete FINRA’s Regulatory Element CE by December 31st each year. This represents a change to FINRA’s previous approach to CE as it replaces the previous 3-year anniversary requirement with an annual one. Note that, to ensure compliance with the rule, member firms may set different deadlines based on their business requirements. Accordingly, ESI will require that RRs complete their Regulatory CE by November 30th, each year.
Under the new program, participants must login to FINRA’s FinPro[1] portal where they will receive content that is specifically tailored to each representative or principal registration category they hold.
Newly-registered representatives will be subject to the annual CE requirement starting with the next calendar year after the year in which they pass their initial registration exam. For example:
ESI will place individuals who fail to complete their Regulatory Element by the November 30th deadline on “CE Inactive” status with the Firm. “CE Inactive” means you will not be able to submit new business and commissions will be suspended until you fulfill your CE requirement. If you remain CE Inactive for 30 calendar days, your ESI registration may be terminated.
Firm Element CE
Also effective with the Rule, all registered persons are subject to the annual Firm Element CE requirement. This is a change in that, under the previous Rule, Firm Element CE was largely limited to affiliated persons who were client-facing and their supervisors. The new Rule expands the requirement to all registered persons, irrespective of their role. This change will generally impact home office employees who may have previously been exempted from the requirement based on their role and responsibilities. Effective with the 2023-2024 training cycle, the population of individuals subject to Firm Element CE will be expanded to comply with the new Rule.
ESI’s 2023-2024 Firm Element CE program will be made available in September 2023. The Firm will announce the program with a separate field notice.
Resources
You can track your personal CE status from your FinPro account. If you haven’t already registered with FinPro, you can do so at https://finpro.finra.org/registerUser/. Existing FinPro users can log in at https://finpro.finra.org.
Additional FINRA CE resources can be found at:
Continuing Education (CE) | FINRA.org
Securities Industry CE Transformation | FINRA.org
Questions
Questions regarding this notice may be directed to ESI Licensing at esi_licensing@nationallife.com or Misty Dodson at mdodson@nationallife.com.
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[1] Users must have an active FinPro account. Click hereto login or create your account.
We are pleased to announce the next generation of MoneyGuidePro is coming to Equity Services Inc on Monday November 13th. In this latest version you’ll many new features to help make planning easier such as
– Advanced Earmarking with Monte Carlo
– Employer Awards (replacing Stock Options and Restricted Stock)
– New Account Type: Health Savings Accounts
– Better Handling of Annuities with Lifetime Income
– Enhancements to the Cash Bucketing Strategy
– Improvements to the Disability Insurance Needs Analysis
If you want to learn more about the enhancements you can review the release notes or join a webinar hosted by MoneyGuidePro on Tuesday November 14th at 2pm ET. Can’t make it? The webinar will be recorded and available to everyone who registered.
It’s important to note that some of the changes that MoneyGuidePro are making may change the probability of success for your plan either negatively or positively. While not every plan will be impacted, and we expect any plans that are to only have minor adjustments we highly recommend that if you have any plan presentations on or after November 13th that you give yourself extra time to review the plan and make any updates as necessary.
Still have questions? You can reach out to MGP directly at 1-800-743-7092 or you can email us at ESItech@nationallife.com.
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The legacy proposal system in ESI Illuminations is currently scheduled to be decommissioned at year-end. Join Envestnet on November 10th for this 1-hour webinar and learn how to utilize the Next Generation proposals.
Webinar
Friday, November 10th, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET
Click Here To Register
The webinar agenda includes a guided walk-through of the new system, differentiators from the legacy system, and time for questions with subject matter experts. Click here to register.
If you are still using the legacy system, or simply need a refresher on Next Gen Proposals, please be sure to join the discussion.
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Fidelity “Perspective”
Click here to read the full article.
Even the most successful firms face headwinds to growth.
Those headwinds range from macro conditions in the economy to the political climate, and they can make managing the day-to-day challenging—and planning for the future daunting. Wealth management firms are also navigating the evolving regulatory environment, a competitive landscape comprised of increasingly larger and more sophisticated firms, and a challenging environment for hiring and retaining talent.
There has also been an explosion of innovative technology available to wealth management firms. These advancements have lowered the barrier to entry for products and services that were once reserved for niche segments. Pair this with investors expecting more than ever before from their advisor, in terms of services and investment returns, and the result is an increasingly competitive landscape where firms have a harder time differentiating themselves on the services they already provide.
With all of this in mind, growth can start to look like an uphill journey for many firms. Yet, against this challenging backdrop lies opportunity.
So, how can firms begin building durable, and growing businesses amidst these headwinds? It begins by recognizing that creating a durable business is a long-distance race, not a 100-meter dash, and that there are actions you can start taking now to invest in growth areas that will pay off later.
The following are five areas of focus for wealth management firms to consider for the long haul.
Click here to read the full article.
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