Newsletter for July 2018

Happy Summer!

Any moment now (hopefully!) the CII will start delivering 18/19 financial services study texts to those of you who have ordered or renewed their enrolment. If you’re unsure as to whether you will be sent the 18/19 version of your study text, do call the CII directly to check. Do bear in mind that we have nothing to do with the CII’s own study texts, so we can’t help you if you have any specific queries on them – you will need to contact the CII.

As for us, we’ve already started work updating all our resources for the 18/19 tax year examinable from 1 September. It’s a huge job but we’re on it! Look out for emails from us during August in this regard.

Each month in our newsletter I try to step away from exams just for a moment and share a paragraph or two about other things going on that may be of interest. This month I’d like to share some music…

Warning! Proud Big Sister Alert!

My youngest sister (I’m one of four girls ’ my poor father), has many talents but she is such a talented musician that I almost burst with pride. Known as ‘Uno Prism’, she has been working hard on her next nu-jazz electronica album due for release shortly. You can hear a track via this review. It’s very much my kind of music. Enjoy!

Have a great Summer.

Best Wishes,

Catriona and the Team
Brand Financial Training

There are only two certainties in life according to Benjamin Franklin. To those, we can add the certainty that questions on Inheritance Tax (IHT) will come up if you are sitting the R03 exam and of course the AF1 exam. Learn more about it so you don’t get caught out on exam day.

IHT is the place where death and taxes collide; although according to HMRC statistics, only around 3.9% of all deaths in 2014-15 led to an IHT charge (these are the latest figures). This is largely because the estate value was less than the Nil Rate Band (frozen at £325,000 since 2009), but in other cases, it will be the result of the transferable nil rate band facility, as well as good lifetime planning utilising exemptions and reliefs.

A major tax saver is the inter-spouse exemption. Transfers between UK-domiciled spouses and civil partners, during life and on death, are exempt from IHT. This applies whether or not the spouses are living together but stops on divorce. If the transferor is UK domiciled but the spouse or civil partner is not, the exemption is equal to the prevailing Nil Rate Band – currently £325,000. A non-UK domiciled spouse can make an election to be treated as UK domiciled for IHT purposes, which will mean that transfers from their UK domiciled spouse/civil partner will then be completely exempt, but it will also mean that they will pay IHT on their worldwide assets.

Changes to the Rules Pertaining to Deemed Domicile

Prior to April 2017, someone would be deemed to be UK domicile if they had been resident in the UK for 17 out of the last 20 years. Since 2017, this changed to 15 out of the last 20 years.

Also in 2017, a new category of deemed domicile known as ‘formerly domiciled resident’ was introduced. Someone will be classed as a formerly domiciled resident if they:

• are born in the UK with a UK domicile of origin
• have acquired another non-UK domicile of choice
• are now resident in the UK and were resident in the UK in at least 1 of the 2 previous tax years

The upshot of these rules is that they will be deemed domicile in the UK from the date they become UK resident again.

What if you had a robust revision strategy that sped everything up and gave you the success you deserve? Learn why humans are so forgetful and how you can design your revision strategy for optimal memory retention.

How bad is your memory, exactly?

German psychologist, Herman Ebbinghaus was the first to describe just how good at forgetting we are! Assuming that you start off knowing 95% or so of what you’ve just learned, within a day you’ll have forgotten nearly 70% of it. In fact, within just a few minutes you’ve already begun to forget it. That surprises most people. And yet we’ve all experienced it.

Tragically, around the six-month mark, you remember so little it begs the question, was it worth putting all that time and effort into learning it in the first place?

Why are we so forgetful?

It’s how human beings come, right out of the box! Evolution has seen to it that we have developed and kept the skill of forgetting.

If that’s the case, you’d have thought there must be some evolutionary advantage to forgetting.

And indeed, there is!

The automatic, unconscious part of the brain which just (and in the background, and all the time) gets on with keeping you alive, deliberately gets rid of older information in favour of newer information.

All the time.

Automatically.

Why? Well the very survival of our ancestors depended on their forgetting where the herd of deer (a.k.a. lunch) was seen two or three months ago in favour of where it was seen last night, or better still, this morning.

You don’t need me to tell you you’re better off remembering where you left your keys this morning, better yet, five minutes ago! And given that your unconscious mind is preoccupied with your survival, and doesn’t, under any circumstances, consider passing exams crucial to your living another day longer, it will let go of what you’ve learnt as fast as you learn it!

But you know that already, don’t you?

Look, it’s not your fault, but the chances are, when it comes to revising, you’ve been doing all the wrong things, over and over again. Most people become experts at doing what doesn’t work!

Because, the truth is, the way most people attempt to revise actually fights with the way your brain works.

Guess who loses that fight!!

Far smarter is to work with it.

And that means stop doing the same old thing over and over again when it doesn’t work, but instead develop a robust revision strategy that speeds everything up and gives you the success you deserve.

..."The calculation workbooks for R02 and R03 are very good indeed. They were a major factor in helping me achieve good scores in these exams (89% and 80% respectively)..."

Julian Sellen, Leatherhead

Available for AF1, AF2, AF4, AF7, R02, R03, R04, R06, J03, J05, J10, J12, CF1, CF6

Many exam-takers lose vital marks when it comes to performing calculations as they haven’t nailed down the exact process and order in which to perform the calculations, and haven’t spent enough time practising them.

The number of marks gained or lost on calculation questions can make the difference between a pass and a fail. Just a little more time taken on calculations during the revision period can give you the confidence you need to perform any calculation that could come up, so that you know you will gain top marks on all those calculation questions.

Our calculation workbooks guide you through the calculations, step-by-step, and providing detailed answers, with cross references to the relevant CII study text. All questions and answers kept up-to-date to reflect changes to the exam syllabus and tax year, and you can download them instantly in PDF format.

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

AF1, AF2, AF4, AF7

R02, R03, R04, R06

J03, J05, J10, J12

CF1, CF6

..."I passed R02 - No doubt thanks to your fantastic workbook which helped no end! With the extra work that I did going through your workbook, this helped a great deal with feeling confident which in this exam particularly was useful given that the technique and timing is as important as the knowledge and skill in ensuring that you get through the questions in a timely manner. One could so easily become distracted or frustrated trying to work out/remember one particular formula to the deficit of the other questions but your workbook enabled me to feel glad that there were so many calculations in the exam whereby before I actually feared them."...

David Gunn, Adviser, Nottingham

During July and August, we update all of our CII financial services exam resources for the new examinable tax year, 2018/19, that begins on 1 September.

Do bear in mind that until 31 August, tax year 2017/18 will be examined.

If you purchased a resource for examinable tax year 17/18, you will be entitled to the 18/19 version at no charge! Who else offers that???

We will email you at various points during mid to late August to let you know when resources have been updated and made available and how to claim your free update if you are entitled.

So, if you are unsure about when you are going to sit your exam or you simply want to ‘get on’ with your studies, you can purchase resources straightaway knowing you will be able to get the 18/19 versions later in August. Many of the exams don’t have a huge number of syllabus changes or changes in law, so you can truly ‘get on with it’ right away.

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 April – 8 May 2018 : CF1, CF8, FA1, IF1, IF2, IF3, IF4, IF5, R01, R04, R06, R07

7 March – 6 April 2018 : CF1, IF3, R01

8 February – 6 March 2018 : AF1, AF2, AF3, AF4, AF7, CF1, ER1, FA1, FA2, J02, J03, J05, J12, LP2, R01, R02, R03, R04, R06, R08

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 – 6 July - Click here.

Unravelling the Complexities of the Taxation of Life Assurance Policies – Part 2 - Click here.

Friday Five – 29 June - Click here.

Unravelling the Complexities of the Taxation of Life Assurance Policies – Part 1 - Click here.

Friday Five – 22 June - Click here.

4 Investment Ratio Calculations You Need to Master - Click here.

Friday Five – 15 June - 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!

..." I know how it looks. But just start.
Nothing is insurmountable. "...

"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!