Tenth Annual Forum
Featuring a Keynote from Michael Kitces, MSFS, MTAX, CFP, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, CASL
August 13, 2026
Forum Real Estate Group
240 Saint Paul St., Ste 400
Denver, CO 80206
7:30 am - 3:40 pm
Followed by a Happy Hour
Earn Continuing Education Credits
In-Person Program only
EXHIBITS SCHEDULE SPEAKERS REGISTRATION
KEYNOTE SESSIONS
Michael Kitces - Session 1: Tax Efficient Withdrawal Strategies in Retirement 
The traditional approach to liquidations in retirement is very straightforward: spend taxable dollars first, and let tax-deferred retirement accounts keep growing, because "no one" wants to pay taxes any sooner than they have to! Except the reality is that there really is such thing as "too much" tax-deferred compounding growth, which makes future retirement distributions so large it drives the retiree into higher tax brackets and results in less wealth! In this session, we explore a more effective tax-efficient withdrawal approach of equalizing tax brackets throughout life, by mixing together taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts over time, and leveraging strategies like systematic partial Roth conversions and even capital gains harvesting to smooth out tax brackets from year to year and reduce cumulative taxation throughout retirement!
Michael Kitces - Session 2: The Four Factors That Really Drive Advicer Productivity
As advisory firms grow and add clients, they inevitably reach capacity limitations, because a financial advisor just only has so much time to provide advice and service to clients before they just run out of hours in the day or week, and have to hire more advisor talent. Yet given the cost of advisor talent, advisory firms first and foremost try to lift the productivity of their existing advisors to first generate more with the team they've got. In practice, though, firms often don't focus in the right places to actually generate those productivity lifts. In this session, Chief Financial Planning Nerd Michael Kitces of Kitces Research will share their latest findings on the four factors that really drive the productivity of advicecentric firms, including the impact of team leverage, face-time with clients, the affluence of the firm's clientele, and the pricing confidence of the advisors themselves... and in the process, will show how the prevailing focus on AdvisorTech actually plays a remarkably small role in advisor productivity, once advisory firms get the four "big" things right!
Julia Sewell - Know Her. Lead Her. Launch Her: What Women Really Want from Financial Advisors
Women are not a niche market anymore.
They are the market.
And yet most financial advisors are still communicating with women the same way the industry has for decades — through performance, credentials, jargon, and transactional conversations that were largely designed for men.
The problem is... women don't build trust that way.
In this keynote, entrepreneur and author Julia Sewell brings advisors into a much more honest conversation about how women actually make decisions, build loyalty, choose advisors, and refer business.
Drawing from her work with female entrepreneurs, mothers, high-achieving women, and the insights behind her book The Self-Made Mom, Julia helps advisors understand what women are truly looking for in a financial relationship — and why so many women leave financial conversations feeling overwhelmed, dismissed, intimidated, or simply unseen.
This session is not about "pink marketing."
It's not about softening your message.
And it's definitely not about treating women like they're less financially capable.
It's about understanding that women often buy differently, communicate differently, process risk differently, and define security differently than men do.
And the advisors who understand that are going to win in the next decade.
Breakout sessions
Many clients enter retirement with well-funded portfolios, thoughtful income plans, and confidence that they have “done everything right.” Yet even a strong retirement plan can be dramatically reshaped by the realities of aging: home care, family caregiving, cognitive decline, housing transitions, assisted living, memory care, hospice, estate settlement, and emotionally difficult family decisions.
This one-hour CE program uses the fictitious case study, “The $3 Million Retirement Plan That Life Rewrote,” to examine how care needs can transform a financially secure retirement over time. Attendees will explore how proactive longevity planning can help advisors identify care-related risks, evaluate funding strategies, incorporate housing and home equity decisions, support family communication, and use a practical preparedness framework before a crisis limits the client’s options.
Recent developments, including US retrenchment from global trade and the increasing size of the national debt, have raised alarms about the potential erosion of the dollar's status as the world's dominant trade and reserve currency. Apollo Lupescu, PhD will explore how markets are interpreting “de-dollarization” and rising concerns about US national debt levels.
Ben Low, Darren Fisk & Grant Turner - From Property to Portfolio: The 721 UPREIT as an Estate Planning Tool
For clients with highly appreciated investment real estate, the tax bill at sale can be the single biggest obstacle to portfolio diversification and estate planning. This session goes beyond the basics of the 1031 exchange to explore how the 721 UPREIT -a lesser-known but powerful structure- can help advisors move clients from active property ownership into institutional real estate while deferring capital gains taxes, simplifying estate transfer, and eliminating the landlord burden. Forum Investment Group's exchange specialists will walk through real client profiles, common ownership complications, and the key questions advisors should be asking before a property goes to market.
Nick Arndt - IRAs: Goldmine or Minefield
The IRA rollover stands as a principal business frontier in our time as rollovers represent the vast majority of IRA asset growth. The true hurdle, however, is familiarity with the intricate web of rules and regulations that dictate these transactions. Within this presentation, we not only furnish you with a comprehensive view of pivotal IRA protocols, but we also unveil the art of harnessing this knowledge. Discover how to attract individuals' eligible rollover assets, illustrate the advantages of partnering with a seasoned financial professional, and employ the power of personalized guidance to outshine the competition.
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Jay Sforza & Aaron Pratt - Structured Notes in Today's Capital Markets
This session will provide advisors with a practical introduction and deeper dive into the structured notes market. We'll explore how these investments are constructed, the problems they are designed to solve, where they may fit within a client portfolio, and how advisors are incorporating structured note strategies into their practices. Advisors will leave with a foundational understanding of the asset class and a framework for evaluating when structured notes may be appropriate.
Social Security is an essential component of the retirement planning process, with millions of Americans currently receiving some form of Social Security benefit. And while the appropriate filing strategies are unique to the individual circumstances of each client, understanding how to address a handful of key questions can go a long way toward helping them make informed decisions. In this seminar we will aim to unpack the most impactful Social Security questions facing retirees today.
IAR CE Disclaimer: 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.
