19th November 2014

Wizard Learning: Become a Chartered Financial Planner within 2 years

This article covers the requirements for becoming a Chartered Financial Planner and includes a special limited-time discount for advisers taking their Advanced Diploma exams.

It is possible for an adviser who holds the CII’s Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning to reach Chartered status within 2 years. The CII have a comprehensive exam structure so there are various options available.

If you want to become a Chartered Financial Planner you need 290 credits – with a minimum of 120 of those at AF level and at least 40 credits from Diploma exams.

AF level exams
There are 6 Advanced Diploma units that can be taken:

AF1 Personal tax and trust planning (30 credits)
AF2 Business financial planning (30 credits)
AF3 Pension planning (30 credits)
AF4 Investment planning (30 credits)
AF5 Financial planning process - compulsory (30 credits)
AF6 Senior management and supervision (30 credits)

For the minimum 120 AF credits that means taking four AF exams i.e. 4 x 30 credits = 120 credits. One of these exam passes must be the compulsory AF5 exam.

Any level exams and existing qualifications
The remaining 170 (290 – 120) credits can be made up from exams at any level and can include credits for any prior learning or the transfer of credits from other exam awarding bodies.

Example
This example is based on an adviser specialising in pensions, investments and business financial planning.

This adviser started their advanced studies with 100 existing credits from having previously passed the Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning which required passing the 6 exams, R01 to R06.

The adviser passed the following exams:

The adviser therefore achieved the required total of 290 credits and met the requirement of 120 credits coming from AF level exams.

This adviser chose the pensions, investment and business financial planning exams as they were all relevant to their area of specialism. The FA2 exam was taken to make up the total number of credits needed and complemented their pension studies.

On completion the individual was awarded the Advanced Diploma and as a member of the Personal Finance society was able to use the designation APFS. The individual had the minimum of five years experience in the industry so applied and received the Chartered Financial Planner title, allowing them to promote their high standard of expertise to their clients and reflect that in their fees.

Example timetable for exams

This is a very challenging timetable to becoming a Chartered Financial Planner in a short time frame.

How Wizard Learning can help
The Wizard Learning Training modules listed below are available to support the above example. See here for our full list of training modules available.

Special limited time discount for advisers taking advanced diploma exams

Existing CPD system subscriber discount
The cost of these modules are detailed on our cost and contents page. A 20% discount is available until 1/12/14 to our existing accredited CPD system subscribers if they contact us before purchasing to obtain the current promotion code. Those purchasing the AF5 The Expected Solution Package that are CPD system subscribers will also be given access to all future expected solutions at no additional cost until they pass the exam.

Previous purchaser discount for advanced diploma students – available until 1/12/14
This month we are offering a discounted price for any advisers who have previously purchased our training modules. This will be a monthly fee payable by standing order covering all the exams they need to take to complete their Advanced Diploma and will include access to our accredited CPD system.

For more details about these offers please contact us quoting your username and the exams that you plan to take to complete your Advanced Diploma. The discounted monthly cost payable by standing order will be based on the number of exams you need as well as taking into account your previous purchases as an existing customer of Wizard Learning. You will also have access to all these modules including AF5 until you become Chartered or stop your monthly subscription.

Adviser Letter of the Week, CPD