A Look at Recent Past Papers for the CII AF4 Exam – February 2025
In this article, we are taking a look at the questions asked in four past papers of the CII’s Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning AF4 exam – this is the unit that tests investment planning.
This article is correct as at 23 January 2025.
In the table below we show the questions that were asked in the AF4 2023 and 2024 exams.
| Income calculation. | Modern Portfolio Theory and benefits of diversification. | Factors to consider for an annual review. | Tax treatment of regular withdrawals from an Investment Bond. |
| Risks within portfolio and the reasons. | Standard deviation – theory and calculation. | Beta. | Benefits of investing in a GIA compared to an Investment Bond. |
| Maturity options for Index-Linked Savings Certificates. | Risks of a portfolio and one reason for each. CPI vs RPI. | GAARP vs growth investing. | Macaulay duration. |
| Benefits of investing in NS&I including tax. | Broad and narrow money. | Risk adjusted ratios. | Growth and value investment strategies. |
| Value-based investment style. | Money supply. Return on equity calculation and theory. Factors influencing ATR. | REITs. | Regression analysis. |
| Calculation of TWR and theory. | Mitigating capacity for loss. | Commercial property. | Money-weighted rate of return. |
| ACD and depository roles within an OEIC. | Behavioural finance. | Portfolio optimisation and stochastic modelling. | Risks of structured products. |
| Tax treatment of dividends from VCTs and SEISs and calculation. | EISs and tax planning. | GDP. | NS&I Income Bonds. |
| Reinvestment relief with a SEIS. | Alpha calculation and theory. | ISA contributions. | Capital Asset Pricing Model. |
| Information ratio calculation and theory. | Gearing and investment trusts/trading at a discount. | Friendly society policies. | Fund of funds vs managed portfolio service. |
| Segmentation of investment bond, tax treatment with top-slicing relief. | Income options on a platform’s cash account. | Active vs passive strategies. | Return objectives. Benchmarking. |
| Unfettered fund of funds vs manager of managers fund. | Tactical vs strategic asset allocation. | Stocks and shares ISA vs Personal Pensions. | Operating profit and ROCE. |
| UK’s current and capital accounts. | Sequencing risk. | Investment trusts. | Working capital ratio. Current and non-current assets on a balance sheet. |
| Dividend cover and yield calculation and theory. | Redemption yield calculation. | Diluted NAV. | Main listing criteria for AIM and the UK main market. |
| Factors affecting share prices. | Characteristics of Gilts. Benefits and drawbacks of gilt-based collectives vs owning Gilts directly. | EISs vs VCTs. | Innovative Finance ISAs. |
| Behavioural finance. | Interest rates and fixed interest securities. | ||
| Benefits of direct equity vs collectives. | Quantitative tightening. | ||
| Rebalancing process. | Yield curves. | ||
| Investor protection and gilts. |
The AF4 exam is challenging as not only is the information within J10 and R02 assumed knowledge, it is also important to keep up to date with changes in the economy as questions on this will often appear.
Using as many past exam guides as possible will ensure that the level of detail needed is appreciated and that answers should always be related to the information given in the case study. The main calculations that appear throughout the syllabus should also be practised in full before attempting this exam.
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