How to find an IFA for retirement options?

Aegis

Daniel_Elkington wrote: »

AF3 is a paper where you get case studies sent beforehand and you can buy exam guides which teach you the model answers for all the case studies before sitting the exam, so you can effectively buy this one.

Sorry, but this is actually quite infuriating to see, as I've just sat this exam. You do NOT get case studies ahead of the exam, so you cannot just buy your way through. It is based around three case studies, but you don't get them before the exam and therefore go in blind. They can test on any aspect of pension planning, so it is without doubt the hardest of the pensions exams you can sit with the CII.

The only two CII exams you get the case studies for ahead of time are RO6 and AF5, both of which test the complete financial planning process to some degree. Whilst it is possible to go and look at potential model answers, you still can't buy your way through them because there are a lot of variables that can be thrown at you without warning. Not least of which are the calculations they can ask you to do, which cannot be predicted ahead of time with enough reliability to avoid having to learn a pretty wide array of formulae and figures.

Dismissing a well-respected exam as flippantly as you just did is completely unjustified and really quite insulting to those of us who have studied hard for our advanced qualifications.

gadgetmind

You may find this thread interesting.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3955815

I find this newbie quite interesting. He/she claims elsewhere to be an IFA (initially in signature, now amended), and sometimes uses the lingo fairly well, but at other times completely fluffs it.

However, looking on the bright side, even though they show all the signs of being a troll, they are doing it with a fair degree of style.

Aegis

Yeah, I saw that earlier, but felt you and others had already dealt with it sufficiently, while this one had been left uncorrected!

Daniel_Elkington

Aegis wrote: »

Sorry, but this is actually quite infuriating to see, as I've just sat this exam. You do NOT get case studies ahead of the exam, so you cannot just buy your way through. It is based around three case studies, but you don't get them before the exam and therefore go in blind. They can test on any aspect of pension planning, so it is without doubt the hardest of the pensions exams you can sit with the CII.

The only two CII exams you get the case studies for ahead of time are RO6 and AF5, both of which test the complete financial planning process to some degree. Whilst it is possible to go and look at potential model answers, you still can't buy your way through them because there are a lot of variables that can be thrown at you without warning. Not least of which are the calculations they can ask you to do, which cannot be predicted ahead of time with enough reliability to avoid having to learn a pretty wide array of formulae and figures.

Dismissing a well-respected exam as flippantly as you just did is completely unjustified and really quite insulting to those of us who have studied hard for our advanced qualifications.

/agreed Original post edited

More important is to ask the IFA to show you their cpd log as that will tell you what they have been learning and updating recently rather than exams which are probably out of date in reality.

Aegis

Daniel_Elkington wrote: »

If you get the exam guides

The exam guides are just past papers with examiners' comments on what knowledge they felt was lacking from that paper and how well candidates did. They're not some magical panacea that stops you from having to learn the material in the first place.

If you meant the coursebooks, those are next to useless for the advanced exams because they have no material in them worth looking at. There's sometimes a small expansion on the diploma level books, but for the most part the advanced exams assume a much wider breadth of knowledge than what's written in those books. The CII make it quite widely known from time to time that they expect advanced diploma candidates to be able to answer questions from outside the coursebooks.

and spend a few hundred pounds on courses which base their content on passing the exam rather than learning the knowledge, like we get in modern secondary schools, then you will be told how to pass and will get a pass.

You get taught how to apply your knowledge and how best to structure questions. If you go onto one of those course without knowing the material, you will still fail. By far the most important part of passing these exams is the actual learning of the material. Exam technique is all secondary, and there's no way that you can learn in a one or two day course what it takes to pass these exams if you're not already quite familiar with the framework and a large number of the specific knowledge requirements.

In other words, there's no point in attempting to pass AF3 without significant background in pension planning or an academic interest in the subject bordering on the obsessive. If you have that and put in the hours, you can pass. If you don't put in the hours required to build up the knowledge, you fail.

I personally find the courses far too slow for me, therefore I have only been on two in total for the thirteen financial services exams I've sat, however for some people it teaches them the basic exam technique such as:

• what positive marking means
• how to set out a calculation in exam conditions
• what sort of assumptions it is important to state

These are quite basic concepts to people who have never stopped sitting exams, but for those who have little experience, it gives them the opportunity to learn how to put what they know on paper to give them the best chance of passing.


In addition, I suspect you're confusing correlation with causality. People who pay hundreds of pounds to go on these courses are taking their exams seriously and are likely putting in a lot of study to get their passes. The fact that they're going on courses doesn't automatically cause them to pass, its the effort, time and to some extent money combined that allows them to pass these exams.

If you studied for it properly, like I did, then I agree my statement would be very irritating, however a lot of people I speak to spend a few hundred on courses and revision aids and made no effort whatsoever to actually learn the syllabus, rather cram all the relevant knowledge in so they could get the relevant piece of paper.

Do you know how arrogant this makes you sound? Somehow your pass is better than all the others who have to go on courses?

Let me tell you this now, your credits are only worth as much as anyone else's, no matter how different your study routes might have been.

Back to learning techniques, if you learn it properly it will stick in your mind and you will be able to use that knowledge appropriately. If you cram it in, it will fall back out fairly rapidly.

More important is to ask the IFA to show you their cpd log as that will tell you what they have been learning and updating recently rather than exams which are probably out of date in reality.

Out of interest, your profile (from the nowretirement.com website) says you're only qualified to certificate level by examination. Could you clarify which advanced units you've actually sat to make you able to pass judgement on them?