Posted by The Team at Brand Financial Training on March 8, 2022 in Newsletter
8 March 2022
Congratulations to all those of you who passed R06 last Friday! It was great to hear from you all. It seems like just a few days ago we were prepping the analysis for the January exam and already the spring exam is around the corner!
If you are starting your prep for R06 and want to get ahead of the game, get your hands on our R06 How to Pass guide, which is full of hints and tips to help you with the initial stages of your revision.
Best Wishes,
The Team at Brand Financial Training
Featured Article
Introducing New Rules on Financial Promotions
The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) rules on financial promotions are most likely to be tested in the CII’s R01 and CF1 exams.
The FCA’s proposed new rules on financial promotions are expected to come into effect in Summer 2022, once the draft rules as outlined in CP22/2 are finalised.
CP22/2
In CP22/2, the FCA is proposing changes in a number of key areas, including:
their classification of high-risk investments
the consumer journey into high-risk investments
strengthening the role of firms approving and communicating financial promotions
applying their financial promotion rules to qualifying cryptoassets
FCA rationale
In implementing these changes, the FCA believes it is addressing the harm consumers may experience when investing in high-risk investments that do not match their risk tolerance, protecting them from unexpected and significant losses and undermining wider confidence in investments, making it harder for all firms to raise capital.
While they have stated that they do not want to restrict consumers who want to invest, they do want them to be able to identify and access investments that suit their circumstances and attitude to risk.
Transferring Nil Rate Band between spouses/civil partners
Are you a visual learner? You’re going to love this new feature on the blog! Watch short, informative videos designed to help you prepare for your CII exam. This one is all about transferring the Nil Rate Band between spouses/civil partners – perfect for your CII R03 or AF1 exam revision.
Introducing Brand Bitesize!
In these short, ‘bite-sized’ videos, we will be sharing some useful tips to help you grasp key concepts you will need to understand before you take your CII exam.
Topics will vary across the Diploma syllabus, so keep an eye out for the Brand Bitesize videos relevant to your exam.
Transferable Nil Rate Band
In our first Bitesize video, we take a look at how the Nil Rate Band can be transferred between spouses and civil partners. The most important thing to remember is that it is the unused percentage that transfers, not the amount in pounds. You can find out more, including a worked example, in the Brand Bitesize video below.
E-mocks! Don’t miss out on our new on-line mock questions. E-mocks are free for a limited time with all study kit purchases for R01, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
These are an on-line version of our PDF mock papers, where you can practise taking short quizzes of 10 questions, 30 questions, 50 (or 100) questions, or a fully timed mock exam.
Revision Notes
Available for AF1, AF4, AF5, J02, J05, J10, R01, R02, R04, R05, R06
..."Your study [revision] notes were invaluable… I would advise everybody who is due to sit these to use the study notes and the mock exams as these will give you a terrific insight into how the exams work. Good luck."...
Brian Lynn, Partner, Brian Lynn Financial Services
Passing your CII exam can seem like a struggle, especially when there is so much content to learn. Our revision notes are for when you are further into your studies and are ready for a more condensed version of the study text so you can spend time revising what needs to be revised and get focused on what is needed.
Use them with the other resources in our study kits and you’ll be well prepared for your exam.
Why not try before you buy? Download one of our free tasters:
..."The Brand training material certainly helps you to focus on the key information required and get straight to the salient facts. Having to read all of RO4 and JO5 was daunting but by using the notes as a guide it helped me to condense a lot of this information quickly."...
Mandy Saunders, Verifier
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
..." Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. "...
Robert Collier
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!
