Table of Contents
- Why the Latest NASAA Approved IAR CE Has Been So Hard to Find
- How NASAA’s New Catalog Surfaces the Latest NASAA Approved IAR CE
- Why the Latest NASAA Approved IAR CE Matters to Advisors
- A Regulatory Catalog First, Even If Reviews Are Enabled
- How IARs Will Use the Latest NASAA Approved IAR CE Catalog
- What the Catalog Signals About the Future of NASAA IAR CE
- Bottom Line for IARs
- FAQs
There is no simple way to find the latest NASAA approved IAR CE. It’s maddening!
Searches in Google Gemini and ChatGPT won’t produce a complete list of courses approved by NASAA, never mind a list of all the latest ones. A full catalog of NASAA-approved IAR CE does not exist today. As a result, searching for the best IAR CE is futile.
You can find CE providers. You can find approved courses. But you cannot find a list of the latest approved IAR CE classes or a complete catalog of NASAA-approved IAR content. Finding the best IAR CE is, thus, a needle-in-a-haystack proposition.
That's about to change, however.
NASAA, the administrative and policy arm of state securities regulators, is building a centralized course catalog that will make it easier for IARs to find the latest NASAA approved IAR CE in one place. The catalog is expected to be live in late February 2026. NASAA recently asked approved IAR CE providers to submit standardized course information that will form the foundation of its online catalog. For advisors, this practical improvement has real implications for how you select CE classes.
Why the Latest NASAA Approved IAR CE Has Been So Hard to Find
Today, IARs attempting to search for the newest NASAA approved IAR CE stand little chance of success. Provider websites rarely display approval dates. Marketing emails promote availability, not whether a CE class reflects today’s regulatory environment. Large course libraries mix newly approved courses with ones approved years ago. No NASAA-maintained public list shows which courses were most recently approved.
Even the most diligent advisors often cannot determine whether they are enrolling in the latest NASAA approved IAR CE or a class that received approval several years ago. From a professional responsibility standpoint, this lack of transparency is a problem. IARs are expected to stay current, yet the system has made it difficult to identify what “current” actually means.
How NASAA’s New Catalog Surfaces the Latest NASAA Approved IAR CE
It's no secret that NASAA has requested that approved IAR CE providers submit structured data about each of their approved courses. That information will be used to build a centralized catalog of approved IAR CE for 2026 and beyond.
Although NASAA has not yet released the public-facing interface, the intent is clear: approval information, including recency, is being centralized.
Once the catalog goes live, IARs will no longer need to rely on provider claims or indirect signals to identify the latest NASAA approved IAR CE. Approval status and approval timing should be visible and consistent across providers.
This is not a rule change. It is a transparency change, and for advisors, that distinction matters.
Why the Latest NASAA Approved IAR CE Matters to Advisors
When advisors search for NASAA-approved IAR CE today, they often give little thought to how recently the content was approved. Instead, they rely on marketing descriptions that sound credible but do not reveal whether the material reflects current regulatory issues or content approved years ago.
Many IARs are seeking education that reflects today’s environment rather than generic, evergreen material. Until now, the system has not made that preference easy to act on.
A centralized catalog bridges that gap by making recency visible. That outcome aligns directly with investor protection, which is NASAA’s core mandate.
A Regulatory Catalog First, Even If Reviews Are Enabled
The new NASAA IAR CE catalog is designed primarily as a regulatory catalog, not a commercial recommendation engine. Its core purpose is to help advisors confirm eligibility and classification of courses, not to promote or rank providers.
Based on the information NASAA is collecting, the catalog is designed to show whether a course is approved, which CE category it satisfies, whether it is live or on demand, whether it is publicly available, and when it was approved or last updated.
NASAA has not publicly stated whether the catalog will invite or emphasize advisor reviews of individual courses or providers. While it is unlikely NASAA will rely heavily on reviews, its learning platform infrastructure already supports reviews for NASAA-produced webinars eligible for IAR CE. As a result, it is possible that IAR reviews of courses, instructors, or providers could be enabled.
Even if reviews are included, they would not change the catalog’s underlying function. Approval status, category classification, and recency remain regulatory determinations.
How IARs Will Use the Latest NASAA Approved IAR CE Catalog
Once live, the catalog will become a valuable resource for searching NASAA-approved IAR CE. The default view is likely to surface the latest NASAA approved IAR CE courses, but advisors will also be able to sort by category.
If you need Ethics IAR CE, you should be able to filter for the most recently approved Ethics courses. If you need Products and Practice credit, you will be able to sort that category and select from a range of the latest approved topics. Advisors should also be able to search for IAR CE focused on artificial intelligence, tax planning, and other emerging issues.
Importantly, advisors will be able to search across all NASAA-approved IAR CE providers in one place.
For the first time, financial professionals will be able to see which providers continuously create new content, which rely primarily on evergreen material, and which are most active in producing the latest NASAA IAR CE.
Today, the largest CE providers enjoy an inherent advantage because they can dominate Google search results with advertising. NASAA’s IAR CE catalog should help level the playing field by relying on transparency and verified approval data, hallmarks of NASAA’s regulatory approach.
Most importantly, the catalog reduces guesswork, preserves advisor choice, and improves the quality of advisor education. These benefits extend beyond NASAA-regulated IARs to CFP, CIMA, and CPA professionals as well. The same transparency that helps identify the latest NASAA approved IAR CE also improves the effectiveness of continuing education across the financial profession, which ultimately benefits consumers.
What the Catalog Signals About the Future of NASAA IAR CE
As previously reported, NASAA is bringing fully in-house its IAR CE review program, which is now responsible for the education of more than 200,000 IARs across 23 states. That's about half of all IARs.
Since NASAA’s Model CE Rule became effective in three states on January 1, 2022, Prometric LLC has played a central role in approving IAR CE classes, instructors, and providers. That role is now ending.
Prometric is being replaced by NASAA’s internal staff.
To support this new system, NASAA built a new Application Management System (AMS) to track and review applications for new courses, instructors, and providers. Unlike the system create by Prometric, the AMS structures application data. This enables indexing of data submitted in applications by instructor, provider, topic, and CE category, including Ethics, Professional Responsibility, and Products and Practice, and more.
NASAA’s new AMS professionalizes the IAR CE program and elevates it significantly. State regulators built the IAR CE framework over many years on limited resources. The catalog and AMS represent the culmination of that effort, a durable regulatory system designed to strengthen investor protection.
Standardized reporting, centralized visibility, and public transparency are features of regulatory infrastructure built to endure. The catalog makes the latest NASAA approved IAR CE easier to find, along with the newest education on the topics advisors need to understand right now.
Bottom Line for IARs
Right now, there is no reliable way to find the latest NASAA approved IAR CE on the web.
NASAA’s new course catalog changes that.
By centralizing approval data and making recency visible, the catalog will make it easier for IARs to identify what is current, eligible, and newly approved.
For advisors who value timely, relevant education, this is a meaningful improvement. And for providers focused on live, current instruction, it brings long-overdue visibility to work that was already being done.
This upgrades the financial advice U.S. advisers provide and is good for consumers. NASAA is impressive and it's role is expended by this implementation of the AMS.
NASAA's flawless implementation of IAR regulation through education requirements explains why a coalition of crypto, AI, and alternative investment companies are trying to preempt regulation by state securities regulators.
Related articles:
| NASAA Preemption Risk Explained In An Ethics IAR CE Class |
| Best IAR CE Course For Investment Adviser CE Compliance |
FAQs
What problem is NASAA’s new course catalog intended to solve?
Today, there is no centralized way for IARs to find the latest NASAA approved IAR CE. Approved courses are scattered across provider websites, marketing emails, and static lists that do not show approval timing. The catalog is intended to make approved courses easier to identify and compare by centralizing approval data.
Has NASAA officially announced the catalog to IARs?
No. As of now, the North American Securities Administrators Association has not published a formal public announcement, press release, or guidance document describing the catalog for IARs. The existence of the catalog is inferred from provider-level communications and observable system changes.
How do we know NASAA is building a catalog if it hasn’t been announced?
NASAA has requested approved IAR CE providers submit standardized, course-level information in a format consistent with a searchable catalog. NASAA has also publicly acknowledged its transition to a new Application Management System (AMS), which centralizes course and provider data. Together, these steps strongly indicate a catalog is being built, even though it has not yet been formally described.
Will the catalog show the latest NASAA approved IAR CE?
NASAA has not publicly confirmed how courses will be sorted or displayed. However, because approval timing is being captured as structured data, the catalog should be capable of surfacing recently approved courses. Whether “latest” will be the default view has not yet been stated publicly.
Will IARs be able to search by CE category?
Based on the data NASAA is collecting from providers, the catalog should be able to display courses by CE category, including Ethics, Professional Responsibility, and Products and Practice. Final filtering options will not be known until NASAA releases the catalog interface.
Will the catalog include on-demand and live courses?
NASAA’s provider data requests distinguish between delivery formats. That suggests the catalog will be able to show whether a course is live or on demand. NASAA has not publicly stated how prominently delivery format will be displayed.
Will the catalog include reviews or ratings of courses?
NASAA has not stated whether the catalog will invite or emphasize IAR reviews. However, NASAA’s learning platform infrastructure already supports reviews for some NASAA-produced webinars. It is possible reviews could be enabled, but any reviews would reflect user experience, not regulatory endorsement or approval.
Does inclusion in the catalog mean NASAA recommends a course?
No. Inclusion would indicate approval for IAR CE credit, not a recommendation. Approval status, CE category, and recency are regulatory determinations. Suitability, instructional quality, and relevance remain matters of professional judgment for the advisor.
Will the catalog change IAR CE requirements?
No. The catalog does not change the number of credits required, the CE categories, or state adoption of the NASAA IAR CE rule. It is an administrative and transparency improvement, not a rule change.
Will IARs need to log into NASAA’s AMS?
No. The AMS is an internal system used by NASAA to manage provider, instructor, and course applications. IARs will not submit CE through the AMS and will not manage their CE obligations there.
How does the catalog affect large versus small CE providers?
A centralized catalog reduces reliance on marketing and advertising to identify approved courses. If approval timing is visible, IARs may be better able to distinguish between newly approved courses and long-standing, evergreen content, regardless of provider size.
When is the catalog expected to be available?
NASAA has not published a firm public launch date. Based on provider communications, the catalog is expected to go live in early 2026, but that timing has not been formally confirmed in public NASAA materials.
Why does this matter to IARs right now?
Because once the catalog is live, IARs should have a clearer way to identify what is approved, what is current, and what was recently added. That reduces guesswork and helps advisors select CE that reflects today’s regulatory and fiduciary environment.
