Newsletter for December 2018

December can be very busy with everybody taking the opportunity to tie up loose ends (some of which may have been loose for most of the year!) before the Christmas break. There’s something very satisfying about completing those bits and pieces that have been hanging around. And if you have kids, you may feel like you are attending endless Christmas concerts, Christmas fairs, Christmas this that and the other!

Christmas Opening Hours

A quick note on our ‘opening hours’.

Our website is open 24/7 365 days a year. If your relatives are driving you mad on Christmas Day (really? never…), you can even purchase and download our resources with a glass of mulled wine in hand. The only item that may be delayed over the Christmas period are the activation of logons to our audio masterclasses and e-learning videos (these will be processed when we return on 2 Jan). Other than that, everything can be downloaded as soon as payment is made.

Do note that the Brand Financial Training Team will be off from noon on Friday 21st December and will return on Wednesday 2nd January. During that time, we will not be able to reply to any emails or phone calls. However, rest assured that any messages left will be responded to when we return.

Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year!

Best Wishes,

The Team at Brand Financial Training

With reports that cases of bankruptcy are on the increase, we thought we would look at an alternative which might suit some people: an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA). Bankruptcy can be tested in the CII AF1 and AF2 exams as well as in J02 and J03.

What is an IVA?

An IVA is a formal agreement between the person in debt (the debtor) with the people they owe money to (the creditors).

An insolvency practitioner (IP) works on behalf of the debtor and collects agreed payments from them that is then divided and paid to the creditors. The IP works with the debtor to come up with a figure that is affordable and paid over an agreed timescale. They then contact the creditors for agreement. If creditors holding 75% of the debt agree to the IVA, then it is put in place and can start. Payments usually continue for 5 years.

If a debtor doesn’t make the agreed payments, then the IP can make that person bankrupt.

The IVA is added to the IVA Register and then taken off 3 months after the IVA ends.

Balancing the constantly conflicting demands of work, study and your personal life is always going to be challenging. Occasionally, your employer, tutor and family members may simultaneously feel their hold on your time is the most important one. But while it can seem daunting, it’s by no means impossible.

Here are our top tips for keeping the various balls in the air:

1. Talk to your employer

Communicate honestly and regularly with your manager, assuring them that you won’t miss any vital deadlines while studying for your accountancy exams. If you need to (and can bear to), it may be worth considering sacrificing lunchtimes, holidays or other breaks to demonstrate a serious commitment to your day job. Equally, let them know when the key exams and deadlines fall, and do so well in advance.

Show willingness in this way, and you’re more likely to be granted concessions when you need them, such as study leave.

2. Use your free time productively

Use the time when you’re not at work to balance the day job and coursework as effectively as possible. That may mean listening to recorded notes or reading on the way to work, or grabbing 20 minutes of your lunch hour to study.

How about making it a rule never to leave the house without something to read?

Every individual has their own learning style. Learning by listening provides an alternative to reading and re-reading the study text, and can help with absorbing and understanding materials. Our brand new R05 MP3 audio masterclasses come in digestible chunks allowing you to listen at home, in the car, at the gym or wherever else you may be.

Our audio masterclasses are:

• A series of 11 MP3 audio masterclasses to purchase
• Over 5 hours of audio learning
• Kept up-to-date to reflect changes to the exam syllabus and tax year
• Downloadable via online logon
• Able to be listened to on any MP3-enabled device including tablet, mobile, iPad or laptop
• Backed by our 30-day money-back guarantee

To purchase our brand new R05 audio masterclasses, click here.

Available for R01 and R02

...“The R01 videos, study notes, workbook and practice papers were so helpful and made revision a lot more approachable. It really helped me to pass when I failed before! I look forward to using your other materials for the other exams!...

Sarah, DC Pensions Associate Consultant, London

Covering the exam learning outcomes, our modular e-learning packages provide you with 24/7 online access, for 3 months, to videos, a workbook including handouts and self-test questions for each module, and PDFs of the slides used in the videos.

Our customers often tell us that face-to-face training just doesn’t work for them in terms of time, cost and the fact that you can’t attend the same live face-to-face event again and again! E-Learning is a great alternative.

• No travel required, saving you valuable time
• No accommodation required, saving you money.
• You can watch the videos as many times as you need – it is not “once only” where vital information can be missed
• You receive further support via the workbook with handouts and self-test questions
• As the R01 and R02 exams are broken down into modules, you don’t experience overwhelm (and exhaustion!) as you often do during day-long face-to-face training

Why not try before you buy? Download one of our free tasters:

R01

R02

Examinable Year Commencing 1 January 2019

The CII's new examinable year for all IF exams starts on 1 January 2019. We are currently updating all our IF1,2,3,4,5 mock papers, and they will be available at the end of December. Note that the mock papers currently available are for 2018 exam sittings.

Own the previous 2018 versions?

If you have purchased IF mock papers for the previous examinable year (examined until 31 December 2018) and find that you will be sitting the exam on or after 1 January 2019, the good news is that you are entitled to the updated Brand Financial Training mock papers free of charge. We will be sending out an email shortly with regards how to claim them.

Are you aware that the CII update their study texts throughout the examinable year to either incorporate new legislations, correct errors or clarify information? Many candidates aren't aware of this, which can result in candidates studying out-of-date information. To make this easier for you, we have collated the most recent CII study text updates.

7 October – 6 November 2018: ER1

7 September – 6 October 2018: CF1, ER1, J03, J05, J07, R03, R04, R06, AF1, AF4 and AF7

8 August – 6 September 2018: J10

Articles and Help for All Your Exams

You’ll find that there’s something for everyone when you check out our blog:

• specific topics and how-to articles;
• reviews of recent CII exam papers;
• our Friday Five – a weekly quiz to give you a fun break from reading the study text;
• study techniques that help you to retain your revision and keep your brain working for you, when you need it;
• information on recent updates to the CII study texts.

Here are the blog posts you might have missed since our last newsletter:

Friday Five – 7 December - Click here.

Our Post-Exam Review of the October 2018 CII R06 Exam - Click here.

Friday Five – 30 November - Click here.

How to Calculate the January Tax Bill - Click here.

Friday Five – 23 November - Click here.

Know how to apply the 36% IHT rate? - Click here.

Friday Five – 16 November - Click here.

There’s such a variety of information on offer to help you as you tackle your CII exams, that you won’t want to miss a single post. We’ve made it easy for you; just click the button below and enter your email details. Be ‘in the know’ with CII-exam-related tips and info – straight to your inbox!

..." Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. "...

"5 Questions in 5 Minutes Every Friday"

This is a bit of Friday Fun where we provide you with 5 questions (and answers) relevant to a mix of CII exams. The challenge is for you to answer the questions in 5 minutes.

Where do I find the Friday Five?

We post each week's Friday Five to our blog first thing every Friday. You can either visit our blog every Friday at https://brandft.co.uk/blog/ or you can simply go there now, and click on the subscribe button in the top right-hand corner of the blog and sign up to receive notifications of our Friday Five posts.

Note that we don't email the Friday Five out to everybody every Friday, so we recommend you sign up to our blog at https://brandft.co.uk/blog/ so that you receive an email notification when it is posted. It will only take you a minute to sign up.

A bit of Friday Fun, but with the added benefit of testing your exam knowledge!