AF8 is one of the two current assignment-based advanced diploma exams offered by the CII. This style of exam offers a very different challenge to the traditional variations on a written exam that are used to test the other CII AF exams. I’ll look at some essential background and then give you our top 10 tips to help you prepare for this exam.
The glib answer is any CII member who wants 30 credits towards achieving Chartered status.
AF8 is ideal if the stress of a written exam is not your thing. You have 12 months to complete the three assignments that you submit online – so you never need to go anywhere near an exam hall.
Please don’t regard AF8 as an ‘easy option’, it isn’t. Unless you’ve already completed AF6, it is a very different experience.
The title of AF8 is Retirement Income Planning. So the first point to make is that there is likely to be limited content about the pensions accumulation phase – primarily it’s about decumulation. For example, you shouldn’t need to know too much about pension input periods. On the other hand, lifetime allowance, transitional protections and the various flexible pension benefits are all fair play.
It’s also important to realise that AF8 ISN’T just about pension planning. If you look at the AF8 syllabus, there are four elements and only one directly relates to pensions. The other three areas are:
As a result, some people see AF8 as a later life exam, not a pensions exam.
This is where there is some welcome news. The current pass rate is a relatively high 76%. Compare this to AF2, the hardest AF exam, with a pass rate of 40%.
You will receive three assignments and all three AF8 assignments need a mark of 50% or more to pass.
The most common question we get asked is ‘what is the best AF exam to sit?’. Our answer is always this: don’t sit an exam just because it has a high pass rate. Sit exams that are most relevant to you and your business. There should be more to sitting exams than just the credits at the end.
There is also limited study support available from commercial providers. The CII provide materials (as we’ll see below) but other training providers aren’t able to provide you with direct support on the specific assignments you are given. The assignments you complete have to be your own work without assistance. In other words, any other support is likely to only be generic. This can feel a little uncomfortable for some people. Click here to watch the CII video on what is plagiarism.
Because of this, The Patterson Group does not provide individual support for AF8. The generic support provided in this blog is as far as we go. We want you to pass and we’re here to help as much as possible – with this and your other CII exams.
Here are our top ten tips:
We hope you find this useful. If you want to know more about our range of study support when you sit other CII AF and R0 exams, click here.
Until the next time…
The Diploma Doctor
If you are thinking of sitting the CII’s AF7 exam, then go into it with your eyes open. Based on the latest CII published results, this is the hardest AF exam to pass with a pass rate of just 43% (the latest published results). If you expect to pass purely because you do transfers at work, clearly this isn’t enough for many people.
If you want to know about important dates, what’s been tested in the past, exam technique and what study options are available, click here for our FREE AF7 preparation guide.
You will also find preparation guides for AF1, 2, 4 and 5 on the same link.
The CII AF7 is a popular exam. Safeguarded benefits is a big area for many financial advisers and if you are involved in the transfer of safeguarded benefits in some way, then this might be the subject for you. It also satisfies the FCA additional exam requirement to advise on safeguarded benefits.
The AF7 exam is 2 hours long. It consists of 3 or 4 short answer questions and then two additional case studies. These both have three to four questions making 9-12 questions in total. Overall, the paper will have 100 marks with the short answer questions accounting for around 30 to 35 of the marks, and the case study questions accounting for 30-35 marks each.
With a pass mark of around 60%, this means that you will normally need 60 marks to pass the exam. The 60% pass mark applies to the exam overall so you could bomb on one case study and still pass if you get enough marks elsewhere.
AF7 is a relatively new exam, launched in October 2017. Like any relatively new exam, it takes a few sittings to see what the examiners are choosing to focus on. The best way to spot these areas is to look at the past exam guides. Here are some key areas:
The last two exam guides are now provided on the CII website. Click here for the link to the CII website. You should ensure you spend time studying these.
The CII suggest around 100 hours of study for this exam. Whether you need this amount – more or less – will depend on your existing knowledge of the area. Even if you have good knowledge of transfers already, there are likely to be areas of the syllabus that you are NOT familiar with. And you will still need to practice that all important exam technique, if nothing else.
With the current low pass rate for AF7, one thing is clear – relying on just your day job is unlikely to prove successful. Don’t under-estimate this exam.
Unless this is a brand new area for you, the answer will probably be ‘no’. For many people, just reading a study text is not likely to be an effective method of revision. You’re unlikely to remember much, especially if you just read without taking notes.
Most people sitting this exam will have some knowledge. Some will have quite extensive existing knowledge. So just use the study text as a reference source – focus on using past exam papers and top-up your knowledge by reading about the bits you are not familiar with.
Click here for a link to our exam technique.
Click here for more details about how you can learn on the go.
If you want to access our FREE preparation guides for other CII AF exams, they are available on our site for AF1, 2, 4 and 5. Just click here.
Prepare well and be successful.
The Diploma Doctor
One of the questions that we frequently get asked is ‘which CII AF exam should I sit next?’. Oh, if only there was a simple answer!
We believe that the purpose of exams is to make people more knowledgeable so sensibly, people would choose the AF exam that is most useful to both themselves, and their business. The road to chartered is a long journey and that also means that many people want to select the subjects that help them to shorten this journey.
This is a big subject area so, in this blog, I’ll consider some of the main CII AF exam options. In two subsequent blogs, I’ll look at the options for the Certificate and Diploma subjects that are worth considering:
CII exams: getting to Chartered. To view it, click here
CII exams: getting to CII Chartered status (part 2). To view it, click here
To complete Chartered Status, the CII require a total of 290 exam credits. 120 of these must be from AF subjects which means that a minimum of four 30 credit Advanced Diploma subjects will have to be completed (if you don’t have existing credits from the previous AFPC or earlier exams). This must include AF5, as it is compulsory. The remaining credits can come from other Diploma or certificate level exams.
Click here for a link to the CII qualification guide.
Remember that there are two exam sittings per year of the written AF exams: in April and October. Coursework-based exams can be entered when you like during the year and you will then have 12 months to complete them.
You need at least four AF exams, but which ones are best for you? There’s the usual caveat about prioritising the ones that are most relevant to your work – and this might make your choice obvious. If not, here are the key questions to consider:
If so, you have three choices: Senior management and supervision (AF6), Retirement income planning (AF8) and Inclusive financial planning (currently being run as a pilot).
AF6 is aimed at people who run a regulated firm (or might do so in the future). With AF8, it might be called ‘Retirement income planning’ but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that it’s all about pensions. It’s more of a later life planning module that includes at-retirement pension options, tax and estate planning, and potentially care planning.
Inclusive financial planning is also currently available and is worth 30 credits. This focuses on the technical areas necessary to provide advice to some vulnerable people and how the oversight of providing this type of advice may be achieved. It also looks at building partnership arrangements with the community and a wider range of bodies that support vulnerable clients.
The benefit of doing coursework is that you will have a year to complete it. With some sensible planning, this shouldn’t prevent you from also sitting one or more written AF exams. This opens up a realistic chance of you getting 3 x 30 credit exams within a year. We never recommend trying to sit two written AF exams at the same sitting – this usually ends in tears. But completing a coursework option as well as a written AF exam is possible with some hard work.
If this is how you want to select your AF exams, then the current traditional exam-based CII AF subjects can be ranked as follows (easiest first): AF5 (Financial planning process), AF6, AF1 (Personal tax and trust planning), AF4 (Investment planning), AF2 (Business financial planning) and AF7 (Pension transfers). This is based on the latest published results. Please note that the pass rates for AF1, 2 and 4 are very similar so it isn’t a great way of choosing between these exams.
The pass rates for AF6, AF8 and Inclusive financial planning tend to be higher (much so in the case of AF6). These are artificially high as anyone who drops out once they have started is regarded as being ‘timed out’ rather than failing the subject. The assignments are not as easy as these pass marks might suggest.
Click here and scroll down to see the actual pass rates.
Yes. AF1 is the CII AF exam that underpins most of the other AF written exams so we believe this is a good subject to start with. With suitable preparation, it’s also possible to prepare for the four key areas it covers and give you a decent chance of being successful.
Also, look to sit AF5 as soon as you can. It is examined twice a year and, because it’s based on a fact find that is issued 2 weeks before the exam, there isn’t too much preparation you are able to do before this two week period. It’s also a test of your financial planning skills so the depth of technical knowledge needed usually isn’t that great.
The CII website (using the earlier link) is a good place to start. We produce free ‘preparation guides’ for AF1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 which set out your study options, how to study, and the common areas that are tested in each exam. Click here to access them.
Until the next time,
Ian Patterson
Ex-examiner and author of the current CII study texts for CF8, J07 and AF6
For many people who are on the ‘road to chartered’ status, the hard work preparing for AF exams starts 4-6 weeks out from the written exam. The CII suggests 150 hours of study for each AF exam, and, if you look at the stats, either people don’t do this amount of work or they do but it’s not effective. With a pass rate of between only 40-57% for the written 3 hour AF exams, many people who sit these exams can be more effective with their study. This post aims to highlight how to pass your CII AF exam first time.
So what does working smarter and working harder look like? Here are our top ten tips:
Prepare well and be successful first time.
Until the next time…
The Diploma Doctor