Posted by The Team at Brand Financial Training on February 14, 2023 in Newsletter
14 February 2023
This article is correct as at 14 February 2023.
Happy Valentine’s Day! 6 weeks into 2023 already feels like many more, even though it’s been a really busy start to the year for us (and time flies when you’re having fun with R06 and AF5 analyses!).
Have you set your development goals for 2023 yet? If not, what are you waiting for?! There’s plenty of time to get started with studying towards your next CII exam. Why not take a look at what might interest you, and help progress through your professional qualifications.
Best Wishes,
The Team at Brand Financial Training
Featured Article
Mastering the Topic of Money Laundering for your CII Exam Revision
The goal of many criminal acts is to generate a profit for the individual or group that carries out the act. Money laundering is the processing of these criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal origin. In this article, we look at the process of money laundering, the potential criminal consequences of being involved in money laundering, and the anti-money laundering steps a financial firm should take to avoid being used by money launderers. This is useful reading for those studying for the CII’s CF1 or R01 exams.
How is money laundered?
Typically, money laundering involves three steps:
placement;
layering; and
integration
Firstly, the criminal proceeds are introduced into the financial system through bank accounts, building society accounts, or sometimes investments.
Then, it is moved around to try and create confusion as to where the money has come from by transferring it through numerous different accounts – this is layering.
Finally, it is integrated into the system through more transactions until the money appears to be ‘clean’.
Tackling Money Laundering
The Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) 2002 is the main piece of legislation, and under these laws, it is an offence to:
conceal, disguise, convert, or transfer criminal property or remove it from the UK;
be concerned in an arrangement to facilitate the acquisition, retention, use, or control of criminal property;
acquire, use, or possess criminal property; and to
fail to disclose known or suspected cases of money laundering during business in the regulated sector.
It is also an offence to tip off the subject of a money laundering investigation.
The main offences under POCA carry a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.
In this Brand Bitesize video, we show you how dividend income is taxed. This could be useful for anyone, sitting the R02, R03, R06, J02, AF1, AF4, or AF5 exams, who might need a quick refresher on the basics of dividend taxation.
This takes into account the £2,000 dividend allowance for a typical example of someone with both earned income and dividend income. You can find out more, including a worked example, in this Brand Bitesize video.
..."By using your revision notes, past papers and calc books, I’ve been able to pass all my R0 exams in around 5-6 months.
Honestly cannot thank Brand enough. Notes are always impeccable and customer service has always been spot on. Such an amazing service at such a reasonable price – almost feels like cheating!..."
Charlie Garner, Financial Planner, Island FS, Buckinghamshire
Did you know that many of our resources are available as a bundle, which comes with a discount? Save up to 30% off the price you’d pay to buy the resources individually.
If you’re about to start studying for your next exam, you might find more value in a study kit. Select the page for your exam from our main menu to find out more info.
AF5 Fact-Find Analysis
We are busy preparing our AF5 fact-find analysis ready for release TOMORROW.
The analysis aims to give you a better understanding of how to tackle the AF5 exam, looking at potential objectives, likely questions and model answers based on the assumed objectives plus generic questions and help with exam technique.
The pre-order discount goes away when we release the analysis, so you have only a few hours left to take advantage of the pre-order price.
Disruptions to the CII’s Services
The CII is transitioning to a new customer and member relationship management system in March 2023. The transition will take place from 8th March until 19th March inclusive. During this period, students may experience some intermittent service disruptions. The latest information can be found on the CII website.
Updates to CII Study Texts
Here’s a reminder 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 find out if you have the most up-to-date information, visit the CII website, navigate to your chosen exam and click on ‘learning solutions update’ in the ‘Unit updates’ section in the sidebar.
Note that we keep our resources up-to-date with any updates from the CII.
Did You Miss These Posts on Our Blog?
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
Here are the blog posts you might have missed since our last newsletter:
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!
Quote of the Month
..." Your ability to discipline yourself to set clear goals, and then to work toward them every day, will do more to guarantee
your success than any other single factor. "...
Brian Tracy
Friday 5 Focus on...
"5 Questions in 5 Minutes Every Friday"
Each week, we ask questions relating to one of these topics: Investments, Taxation, Pensions, Protection, or Regulation. The challenge is for you to answer them 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!
