Newsletter for October 2017

This week is a major exam sitting for AF, J and R06 exams. I hope they are going (or have gone!) well for you. October is the first time AF7 has ever been sat and judging by the take-up of our new AF7 resources, it seems like many of you have given it a go. It would be great to hear from you if you did – how did it go? Swimmingly, or not so much?

Regardless of what exams you are sitting, it is always great to hear from you.

Have you heard about LifeTalk LIVE? It’s a new TED-style event for IFAs and Financial Services professionals containing short “talks, ideas, notions, predictions, insights and wisdom”! I’ll be speaking there in London on 25th January and would love the opportunity to say hello! There’s more information in our ‘Around the Corner’ section below, or simply jump to:
https://adviserlifetalk.com/register

And finally, thank you to everyone who has filled out our short survey with regards Continuing Professional Development (CPD). This is providing valuable information with regards what kind of support you need to meet the yearly CPD requirements. If you haven’t spent a couple of minutes filling this out already, I would really appreciate it if you could spare a few moments now. This ensures that we continue to provide what you need throughout your professional life. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/926WVMT

Enjoy!

Best Wishes,

Catriona and the Team
Brand Financial Training

The team has just finished putting together the analysis for the CII’s AF5 October 2017 exam sitting, and it became clear that child benefit may feature and can often pop up in AF1, as well as the multiple-choice R03 exam. So, here we remind ourselves how it works and what clients can do to get it back – useful for AF1, AF5, CF1, R03 and R06 revision.

THIS ARTICLE IS RELEVANT TO EXAMINABLE TAX YEAR 2017/18.

Let’s first look at an example:

Jo is a parent to Alfie – she earns £54,000 so as this is over £50,000, she will have to pay a tax charge. For one child, she is entitled to claim £20.70 per week, which totals £1,076.40 per year. The tax charge will be £430 calculated as £54,000 - £50,000 = £4,000/100 = 40%. 40% of £1076.40 is £430 (the HRMC calculator found here doesn’t appear to count the pence).

If this subject comes up in one of the written papers, then the next obvious question, once you’ve had to do the calculation, is explain how to avoid it.

The model answer will include charitable gifts and pension contributions – both of which affect adjusted net income. (Adjusted net income is total taxable income before personal allowances but less gift aid and pension contributions).

So if Jo makes a gross pension contribution of £4,000, then this would reduce income for child benefit purposes to £50,000 and would ensure she continues to get full child benefit payments and does not have to pay some of it back in a tax charge.

The £4,000 would just cost £3,200 as the pension provider re-claims £800 of basic rate tax relief, and she can also make a further claim of £800 through her tax return.

If an employee can enter a salary sacrifice arrangement, this can also be used to avoid the charge.

Do you know what sort of a learner you are? Do you understand how you already process, store and retrieve information in your day-to-day life? This article discusses the profiles of different types of learners.

When you sit down to revise, do you conduct your revision in a way that is natural and easy-to-use?

Of course, there is no right or wrong way of doing revision –all that matters is that what you’re doing actually works for you.

Because we are all human beings, we have a lot in common when it comes to learning stuff. But there are also differences between us, and it’s true to say that none of us operates in exactly the same way as anyone else. You will already have noticed the difficulty we can get ourselves into, believing that other people are thinking the same way as us!

There’s your proof should you need it, that we’re all different!

So how does your personality and your modus operandi inform how to learn efficiently?

There are plenty of different ways of being profiled. You’ve probably experienced many of them.

One of the useful ways when it comes to learning, is the Myers Briggs Inventory. In NLP (neurolinguistic programming) the profiles are called meta-programmes.

Whatever you call it, it’s all to do with how we handle information.

Do bear in mind that we all slide up and down each continuum, depending on how we feel, the circumstances and context etc. Don’t imagine for one moment, that you are to be put in a box. But as a general indication, you might find the following useful.

Do you find yourself falling asleep on your textbook? Have you ever caught yourself reading and re-reading a paragraph without taking anything in? Do you find that the information you have studied doesn’t stay with you much past exam day?

If you’ve answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then you’ll want to check out the selection of Study and Revision articles on our blog so that you can learn how to study most effectively. Most of these articles have been written by Lysette Offley of Genius Material. You’ll learn:

• Why You Should Ditch the Computer and Make Revision Notes by Hand;
• How to Remember What You Have Learned;
• How to Use the Link Method to Remember Things;
• And so much more!

There’s such a variety of information on our blog, including these articles on study and revision techniques; 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 revision techniques and CII-exam-related info – straight to your inbox!

Phil Calvert over at AdviserLifeTalk has once again come up with a fantastic new event.

Inspired by the global success of TED and TEDx conferences, LifeTalk LIVE will share new ideas and insights around the future of Financial Planning, Personal Finance, Online Advice and the Business of Financial Advice.

No boring, long talks are allowed and the speaker line up is looking great with a wide mixture of topics and speaker backgrounds. They include financial planners, a neuroscientist and business psychologist, a negotiation expert, a networking specialist and many others. And Catriona Standingford of Brand Financial Training is honoured to be in the line-up too!

Do join in in London on 25th January. As well as a day that promises to contain a vast amount of interesting content, it’s also a great opportunity to meet up and say hello.

For the full information go to https://adviserlifetalk.com/register

We hope to see you there!

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.

2 August – 5 September 2017 : AF1, AF2, AF3, CF1, CF8, ER1, FA2, J03, J05, J12, LP2, R03, R04, R05, R08

5 June – 1 August 2017 : IF2

6 May – 4 June 2017 : R04 - Study text for 2017/18 examinable tax year has since been issued by the CII.

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 October - Click here.

How the 14-Year-Rule for Lifetime Gifts Works - Click here.

Friday Five – 29 September - Click here.

Tracking Passive Investment in the Real World - Click here.

Friday Five – 22 September - Click here.

Companies provide peace of mind to employees, with RLPs - Click here.

Friday Five – 15 September - 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!

..." You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. "...

"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!