CII - Diploma in Financial Planning - DipPFS
The Diploma is based at Level 4 and to obtain the qualification you require 140 exam credits with at least 80 of these at Diploma level.
The remaining 60 credits can come from any of the examinations offered within the CII financial services framework at Certificate and Diploma level, or comparable qualifications offered by other bodies such as the IFS.
Most importantly you can include any credits gained in respect of relevant exams you already hold.
Currently there are seven units available with 20 credits per unit with JO8/RO6 providing 30 credits.
Exam Structure:
- JO1 Personal Taxation
- JO2 Trusts
- JO3 Tax and Legal Aspects of Business
- JO4 Pension Funding Options
- JO5 Pension Income Options
- JO6 Investment Principles, Markets and Environment
- JO7 Supervision in a Regulated Environment
- JO8/RO6 Financial Planning Practice
JO1-JO7 comprise15 compulsory written short questions in a 2 hour exam.
JO8/RO6 comprises 2 case studies in a 3 hour exam.
CII-Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning
This new qualification has been created to meet the new FSA exam standards (Qualifications and Credit Framework Level 4) in full.
The Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning covers the 6 required subject areas identified by the FSA.
- RO 1-Financial services, regulation and ethics-20 Diploma credits
- RO 2-Investment principles and risk-20 Diploma credit
- RO 3-Personal taxation-10 Diploma credit
- RO 4-Pensions and retirement planning-10 Diploma credits
- RO 5-Financia l protection-10 Certificate credits
- RO 6-Financial planning practice-30 Diploma credits.
To complete the Diploma candidates need to pass all 6 units. Holders of Unit 1- Financial services, regulation and ethics, are authorised to advise under supervision whilst working towards the full Diploma.
The Diploma is modular in that 5 of the 6 units are tested by multi-choice exams and are examined year-round at 60 exam centres. Unit 6- R06 is a written exam and will be examined 6 times a year.
Provisional results for the multiple-choice examinations are released immediately, with results released after 4 weeks for RO6.
Holders of the following existing CII examination units are expected to gain automatic exemptions against the comparable unit in the Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning, as shown in brackets, as they already fully meet the new FSA exam standardsl
- (CF3) Financial protection [(R05) Financial protection]
- (J08) Financial planning practice [(R06) Financial planning practice]