Notice: This course will be held in-person in Kansas City. We will not be offering a virtual option for the Emerging Issues course this year. 

This course is dedicated to new developments in the investments and derivatives world and the challenges for auditors that results. With all of the risk inherent in this highly complicated area, it is critical to stay on top of the new developments, new risks, new structures, new technology and new regulations. This class will cover all of the “news” that auditors should be concerned about. This is a class you can’t afford to miss if your continued or new responsibility is auditing the investment and derivative areas within your company.

Course Topics*:

*Note: Due to the nature of the course and given the uncertainty in the market, course topics are subject to change.

Example Outline (from prior year course):

• Economic Overview: We are excited to announce Rob McDonough of Angel Oak Capital Advisors will be returning to guide us through the key factors driving the economy its effect on capital markets and investments. Discussion will include topics such as:
  • Where are domestic and global economic indicators pointing? What’s the Fed’s Next move? Is a rate cut coming in September?
  • What does it mean when economic signals contradict stock market performance?
  • So… is it “So Long” to the Long Bond? Does issuing the long bond make sense in today’s market?
  • US interest rate policy and Fed independence has been front page news for much of 2025. While the Fed funds rate is a key input to interest rates, factors such as the overall economy, inflation, the credit market and the US debt ceiling also play a significant role. This segment will review the relationship between Fed Funds rate and other factors impacting borrowing rates.

• Investment and Derivative Case Studies: Examine recent failures, debacles and market events and analyze what went wrong, such as:
  • Sanjay Gupta’s GFG Financial Faces Fraud Allegations…Again
  • Allegations of Founder Fraud in the Collapse of Lender Bridging Financial
  • A Wave of Regulatory Scrutiny at Some of Australia’s Biggest Banks
  • Risky ‘Zero-Zero Lines’ Strategy Cited for UK FX Broker Argentex Failure
  • Why the Libor Rigging Convictions were Overturned by UK Supreme Court
  • And more…

• “Builder.ai – The Greatest AI Scam in History” the headlines read …Not so fast. It appears it was NOT the biggest AI Scam; it appears to also be a revenue “round-tripping” scheme with quite an impressive investor line-up.

• The Evolution of Shadow Banking and Private Credit: As Private Credit continues to explode – and the vehicles available to invest expand – questions have arisen around if it could cause a systemic risk to the financial system. Let’s Discuss Recent Headlines to Understand the Risk Around Private Credit such as…
  • from Pension and Investments: State Street-Apollo private credit ETF debuts amid liquidity concerns
  • from the Boston Fed: Could the Growth of Private Credit Pose a Risk to Financial System Stability?
  • from Bloomberg: Private Credit’s Cracks Widened Before Turmoil

• Alternative Investments: Understanding the Mechanics of the Secondary Market: The Private Equity Secondary Market refers to the buying and selling of pre-existing investor commitments to private equity. The private equity secondary market has experienced significantgrowth, with transaction volumes reaching record highs in recent years. This section will be dedicated to understanding how the secondary market operates in an organization, identifying the risks involved in this activity and ensuring the critical controls are in place when completing an audit of this area.

• Auditing Treasury and Cash Management: Often overlooked as low-risk relative to more complex asset classes, treasury and cash management are critical to the operation of an organization. This segment will review risks and controls to ensure your treasury and cash management functions are operating effectively.

• Roundtable Discussion: Is Your Ongoing Due Diligence Adequately Capturing and Responding to Risk?: A Working Paper entitled ‘Hidden Risk’ was published by Harvard Business School professors earlier this year examining “a central problem in financial intermediation – investors cannot directly observe the risks their asset managers take”. The study reviewed risk exposure data from ‘Form PF’ regulatory filings of U.S. hedge funds and determined that historical returns did not capture fund managers’ assessment of risk. Interestingly, investor outflows did not correspond to instances when managers reported higher risk than suggested by past returns. Could your organization be using this publicly-available information to respond to such risk? Let’s discuss!

• Plus: Review and discuss market developments, regulatory initiatives, and reoccurring themes we’re seeing in investment and derivative audits.

Course Outline

Course Information:

The course times will be 8:30 am – 4:30 pm local time on Day 1 and Day 2. The course end time on on Day 3 will be 12:00 pm local time.

Hotel Information:

Coming Soon!

Additional Hotel Information

	Investment Training and Consulting Institute, Inc. is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credits. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org.
Attendance Requirements:	In order to be awarded the full CPE hours, attendees must complete at least 3 attendance monitoring mechanisms (codewords, polls, etc) per CPE hour.
Policy Information:	For more information regarding how to register for a course, refund, program cancellation, complaint resolution policy and other frequently asked questions, please visit our Q&A page or contact our office at 785-783-8201.