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Masterclass 2026
Twelve sessions across three streams with the flexibility to watch live or on-demand to earn 15 CPD hours!
The 2026 FAAA Masterclass Series will deliver 12 high-impact webinars which will dive into some of the most emotionally charged, technically complex, and ethically demanding scenarios advisers face today.
Each stream; Divorce, The Sandwich Generation and Sudden Death, has been designed to sharpen your technical edge, deepen your emotional intelligence, and give you the confidence to lead clients through life’s toughest transitions.
You’ll walk away with:
- Practical frameworks you can apply immediately in client meetings
- Case-based learning that reflects the messy, human side of advice
- Ethical clarity grounded in the Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics 2019
- Tools for resilience, because looking after yourself is part of looking after your clients
Whether you’re helping a client navigate a separation, supporting ageing parents while raising kids, or dealing with the shock of sudden loss, these sessions will equip you to show up with professionalism, empathy, and confidence.
To ensure your registration goes smoothly please ensure you’re logged into your FAAA Learn account before clicking through to register.
Pricing
Full Series (12 sessions/15 CPD hours)
CFP Member – $289
FAAA Member* – $339
Non-Member – $599
Or purchase an individual stream below
(4 sessions/5 CPD hours)
CFP Member – $139
FAAA Member* – $159
Non-Member – $279
All pricing inc. GST
If you are part of an FAAA Professional Practice an additional discount will be applied at cart
*Excluding Student/LOA members
Realistic & Relatable
Grounded in authentic case studies and lived adviser experiences
Technically
Robust
Covers the full spectrum of financial advice challenges
Ethically
Grounded
Addresses the human side of advice with empathy and clarity
Emotionally Intelligent
Grounded in authentic case studies and lived adviser experiences
Professionally
Protective
Helps advisers avoid complaints through better boundaries
Immediately Applicable
Case-driven making each session practical and actionable
Stream 1 - Divorce
What will be covered?
Stream 1 will equip financial advisers with the emotional intelligence, technical expertise, and ethical clarity needed to support clients navigating divorce. From the initial shock of separation to long-term financial rebuilding, each session offers practical tools, behavioural insights, and case-based learning to help advisers deliver compassionate, compliant, and confident advice.
Who is it for?
This stream is designed for financial advisers who work with clients experiencing separation or divorce – particularly those seeking to deepen their understanding of trauma-informed advice, ethical boundaries, and post-divorce financial planning. It’s ideal for professionals who want to elevate their client care, strengthen collaborative practice, and build resilience in emotionally charged scenarios.
What will I gain?
- A trauma-informed approach to client communication and emotional decision-making
- Technical mastery of asset division, superannuation splitting, and insurance continuity
- Behavioural coaching strategies to rebuild client confidence and financial literacy
- Ethical frameworks for managing dual-client conflicts and vulnerable client scenarios
- Practical tools for adviser wellbeing, documentation, and collaborative engagement
The adviser’s role in divorce - compassion, clarity & boundaries
- On Demand
- Up to 1.25 hours - Professionalism & Ethics
Session overview
Divorce is not only a legal event — it’s a profound emotional, financial, and ethical transition.
This session explores the psychology of divorce and the role of a divorce coach, demonstrating how financial advisers can be a collaborative partner in the divorce process. Advisers will gain the skills needed to help individuals make informed, confident choices during emotionally charged negotiations.
In delivering deeper expertise and stronger client outcomes through genuine specialisation and knowledge, this session will allow advisers clarify their niche in the market.
Learning outcomes
- Describe divorce as a Multi-dimensional transition (legal, emotional, financial and ethical) and explains why this matters for advice outcomes.
- Recognise common client presentations in early-stage separation (e.g., shock, distress) and identify what clients typically need first from an adviser
- Apply a clear first-response framework for supporting clients in distress that balances empathy with structure and next-step clarity.
- Formulate a practical guidance approach that helps clients move from overwhelm to action—without drifting into roles outside the adviser’s remit.
Speakers
Lynda McKie CFP®
Senior Private Wealth Adviser, Elston
Sallyanne Hartnell
Divorce Coach & Strategist, Reflect Coaching
Financial triage & technical complexities - structuring, splitting & securing assets
- Thursday 26 February 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 hours - Professionalism & Ethics
Session overview
Dive into the technical engine room of divorce advice – property settlements, super splitting, CGT, insurance gaps, and collaborative law. Advisers learn to model trade-offs and structure settlements that balance emotional needs with financial sustainability.
Learning Outcomes
- Model and compare financial outcomes of property vs superannuation settlements.
- Explain taxation, CGT, and stamp duty consequences of asset transfers.
- Understand insurance continuity and risk gaps post-separation.
- Work effectively alongside lawyers and accountants within the Family Law framework.
Speakers
Tricia Peters CFP®
Managing Director, Peters McKeown
James Matthies
Principal Solicitor, Matthies Lawyer
Ian Sherlock CFP®
Senior Financial Adviser, Pace Wealth
Rebuilding financial security & empowerment post-divorce
- Thursday 5 March 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 hours - Professionalism & Ethics
Session overview
Once the dust settles, the real work begins – rebuilding stability, structure, and self-belief. This session focuses on how advisers can guide clients toward renewed confidence through super rebuilding, risk management, investment strategy, and holistic planning.
Learning outcomes
- Design financial strategies to rebuild superannuation and long-term wealth.
- Reassess risk tolerance, income stability, and insurance needs.
- Incorporate estate planning, beneficiary updates, and tax positioning.
- Apply behavioural coaching to restore client confidence.
Speakers
Dominique Bergel-Grant
Financial Planning, Leapfrog LIFE
Sophie Atkinson CFP®
Financial Planner, Visualise Wealth
Ethics, communication & the adviser’s duty of care
- Thursday 12 March 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 hours - Professionalism & Ethics
Session overview
Bringing it all together with a focus on ethical boundaries, trauma-informed communication, and adviser wellbeing. Learn how to manage compassion fatigue, emotional transference, and professional boundaries while maintaining client trust.
Learning outcomes
- Apply the Financial Planners & Advisers Code of Ethics 2019 to vulnerable-client scenarios.
- Use trauma-informed communication frameworks in emotionally charged meetings.
- Set and maintain healthy professional boundaries while supporting distressed clients.
Speakers
Deborah Kent
Director, Integra Financial Services
Jordan Vaka
Independent Financial Adviser, PlanningSolo
Stream 2 - The Sandwich Generation
What will be covered?
Today’s advisers are seeing a growing number of clients squeezed from both sides — supporting adult children through rising living costs and housing stress, while also caring for ageing parents who need emotional, physical, and financial help. Somewhere in the middle, these clients are trying to fund their own retirement and preserve their sanity.
Welcome to The Sandwich Generation – one of the most financially and emotionally complex client segments you’ll ever advise.
Stream 2 immerses you in the realities of multi-generational financial advice. Through a detailed, evolving case study, you’ll explore how to balance compassion with professional discipline as clients juggle competing priorities, sudden care responsibilities, delayed retirement, and ethical dilemmas about fairness and inheritance.
Each session dives deep into the technical, strategic, and human aspects of advice – helping you confidently guide clients through life’s most demanding transitions while staying firmly within the boundaries of best-interest duty and ethical practice.
Who is it for?
- Experienced Financial Advisers and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Professionals
- Advisers seeking to strengthen their technical knowledge and emotional intelligence in complex family advice scenarios
- Those specialising in retirement planning, insurance, aged care, intergenerational wealth, or ethical decision-making
What will I gain?
- Frameworks to model financial trade-offs when clients support multiple generations
- Practical strategies for carers and families navigating aged care and Centrelink systems
- Tools to rebuild super and retirement confidence after years of family dependency
- Ethical and communication techniques for managing gifting, inheritance, and boundary-setting conversations
- Real-world insight into client psychology — guilt, obligation, fear, and fatigue — and how advisers can provide calm, structured guidance
The financial juggle – competing priorities across three generations
- Thursday 19 March 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 CPD hours - Aged Care
Session overview
Learn how to assess and structure advice for clients supporting both parents and adult children while protecting their own retirement. Explore modelling trade-offs, managing debt, and setting realistic boundaries without losing empathy.
Learning outcomes
- Analyse multi-generational cash flow pressures and restructure them for sustainability.
- Model realistic trade-offs
- Structure advice that protects long-term goals while addressing immediate family demands
- Coach clients on setting financial boundaries that align with long-term goals.
- Guide clients though emotionally charged decisions using behavioural finance principles.
Speakers
Brenda Will
Financial Adviser & Aged Care Specialist, Bruining Partners
Joe Stephan CFP®
Director, SI Advisory
Maree Cridland
Distribution Manager, GenLife
When life changes overnight – becoming a carer
- Thursday 26 March 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 CPD hours - Aged Care
Session overview
Understand the financial shock and emotional toll when a client suddenly becomes a carer for a spouse, parent, or child. Cover Centrelink eligibility, aged care costs, insurance claims, and ethical adviser boundaries when clients are under distress.
Learning outcomes
- Recognise the financial shock of reduced income and increased expenses.
- Apply knowledge of government and aged care support structures.
- Advise clients on re-prioritising protection, estate, and super strategies during crisis.
- Understand carer burnout and the ethical boundaries of adviser involvement.
Speakers
Kathy Havers CFP®
Executive Financial Adviser, Viridian Advisory
Ryan Scherini CFP®
Executive Adviser, Viridian Advisory
Retirement life in the shadow of dependants
- Thursday 16 April 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 CPD hours - Aged Care
Session overview
Discover how to help clients rebuild after years of family support. Explore super catch-up strategies, transition-to-retirement pensions, and planning for the “recovery decade” – the 10 years that can make or break their financial independence.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse how years of financial support or caregiving have affected a client’s super balance, savings rate, and retirement timeline.
- Apply advanced contribution and investment strategies — including carry-forward concessional caps, transition-to-retirement pensions, and downsizer contributions — to restore momentum.
- Design portfolios and cash flow plans that accommodate ongoing family support while maintaining retirement resilience.
- Guide clients through the emotional transition from financial guilt and exhaustion toward renewed confidence and self care
Speakers
Ursula Boorman
Managing Director, Direct Advisers
Legacy, fairness & ethical dilemmas in multi-generational planning
- Thursday 23 April 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 CPD hours - Aged Care
Session overview
Examine the emotional and ethical tensions that arise when clients prioritise family generosity over their own wellbeing. Discuss gifting, inheritance expectations, estate planning, and how to document ethical reasoning under the Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics 2019.
Learning outcomes
- Recognise ethical red flags in intergenerational gifting and dependency.
- Facilitate fair and transparent family conversations about inheritance.
- Apply the Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics 2019 and best-interest duty to emotionally charged scenarios.
- Document ethical reasoning in advice files to support compliance and integrity.
Speakers
Kathy Havers CFP®
Executive Financial Adviser, Viridian Advisory
Virginnia Hottes CFP®
Executive Adviser, Viridian Advisory
Stream 3 - Sudden Death
What will be covered?
Stream 3 will equip financial advisers to navigate one of the most emotionally and technically complex client scenarios: sudden death, including suicide. Through real-world case studies, ethical frameworks, and practical guidance, advisers will learn how to support grieving clients with professionalism, empathy, and clarity – while protecting their own wellbeing and maintaining compliance.
Each session builds on the last, moving from immediate client support to estate and legal complexities, technical financial implications, and finally, ethical boundaries and adviser resilience. The series is designed to foster confidence, compassion, and competence in the face of grief, trauma, and high-stakes decision-making.
Who is it for?
- Financial advisers across all experience levels, especially those working with families, retirees, and business owners
- Advisers seeking to deepen their ethical practice and emotional intelligence
- Professionals who have supported clients through bereavement or anticipate doing so
- Teams looking to embed resilience, ethical clarity, and trauma-informed care into their advice culture
What will I gain?
- A structured framework for responding to sudden death and suicide with professionalism and compassion
- Technical mastery of estate, tax, superannuation, Centrelink, and succession planning implications
- Ethical decision-making tools grounded in the Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics 2019
- Strategies for maintaining professional boundaries and emotional wellbeing
- Real-world insights from case studies that reflect the complexity of grief, trauma, and financial disruption
- Referral pathways and collaboration techniques with legal, mental health, and compliance professionals
The adviser’s important role in times of sudden loss
- Thursday 14 May 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 CPD hours - Tax (Financial) Advice
Session overview
Advisers can become emotional first responders when clients die suddenly. This session explores how to communicate with compassion, prioritise urgent tasks, and support grieving families without overstepping ethical boundaries. It includes guidance on suicide-specific sensitivities and introduces the concept of adviser self-care.
Legal & estate planning implications (with or without a will)
- Thursday 21 May 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 CPD hours - Tax (Financial) Advice
Session overview
This session dives into the legal and estate planning consequences of sudden death, including intestacy, executor roles, and superannuation conflicts. It highlights the unique challenges of suicide-related claims and cross-border estate issues, helping advisers stay neutral, compliant, and supportive.
Tax, superannuation, centrelink & business succession
- Thursday 28 May 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 CPD hours - Tax (Financial) Advice
Session overview
A technically rich session covering post-death tax implications, superannuation pension rules, Centrelink reassessments, and business succession planning. Advisers learn how to balance urgent administrative needs with strategic planning, while collaborating ethically with other professionals.
Ethical decision-making, professional boundaries & adviser wellbeing
- Thursday 4 June 2026 | 12pm-1:15pm
- Up to 1.25 CPD hours - Tax (Financial) Advice
Session overview
The final session focuses on ethical dilemmas, emotional boundaries, and adviser burnout. Through case studies and reflective exercises, advisers develop resilience strategies and learn how to uphold ethical standards under emotional strain. It’s a call to embed wellbeing into professional practice.
