Our Post-Exam Review of the CII’s July 2015 R06 Exam

Now the CII have released the exam paper from their July R06 exam, it’s time to see how we did in our pre-exam analysis. You’ll want to read on if you’re planning to sit the CII R06 exam in the near future.

Case Study 1

Case study 1 focused on a married couple in their 50’s who owned a business between them which they were planning on selling when the husband reached 60. There was plenty to the case study and although clear instructions are always given as to what the financial aims are, you always need to be aware of the odd curve-ball question.

You might consider this to have come early in this paper as the first question gave 8 marks for explaining the benefits of using an IFA – it could have been worse and for many sitting the exam an absolute dream of a question – strangely it was asked in the April exam as well which makes us wonder whether it was actually answered that well. Anyway anyone using our analysis would have found the information needed in our generic section – a section which aims to include any of the potential areas that can apply to any case study.

The paper then drifted into the type of question we expect from R06; fact finding on retirement planning and maximising contributions before selling the business both of which were covered fully in our analysis. We also had a table which listed enough advantages and disadvantages to answer a following question on the pros and cons of making an in specie contribution of the business premises into a suitable pension.

Another big mark question was on assessing the suitability of their IP policies – we had information on Income Protection but didn’t specifically cover suitability. We did however cover in full the suitability of their existing investments which was questioned and covered easily enough with bullet points to give maximum marks on the pros and cons question of using a DFM. The final question tested entrepreneurs’ relief and anyone using our analysis would have had all the information needed to answer this one to get the 10 marks on offer.

All in all not bad questions most of which we had covered off in full.

Case Study 2

Case study 2 can sometimes be the more challenging of the two scenarios – July’s paper focused on a couple who had two adult children and one grandson.

The first question was fact finding for the grandson’s university education – this was one of the aims so really should have been part of anyone’s preparation and was certainly part of ours and fully covered. The next question was made up of two parts and a hefty 12 marks were available for discretionary trusts and 7 marks for how level term can be used to mitigate IHT on gifts to children. We had information on the advantages of using a discretionary trust, but we were not prepared for the term assurance question.

The next question was all about the investments; students had to recommend and justify actions to take to improve tax efficiency – we had this fully covered but didn’t specifically talk about benefits of diversification, which was part of the same question. However most students at R06 level would have studied this in previous exams and should have had a good stab at the 7 marks on offer. There was also a ‘recommend and justify’ question on ways to reduce IHT, and we had this fully covered in our analysis as well as the information needed to answer the IHT calculation question. This time round the review question came in case study 2, and everyone should have achieved top marks for this.

All in all we consider this to have been another fair exam paper with not too many curve ball questions that could not have been answered without prior study, which has been the case in the past.

The pass mark for R06 is 55% and we are confident that anyone who used our analysis to prepare for their exam, should have easily achieved this.

Grab the resources you need!

If you’re studying for your CII R06 exam, and you’re wanting an edge in your preparation for the exam, grab our free taster analysis to try out one of Brand Financial Training’s resources for yourself.  Click the link to download the R06 case study analysis taster now!

Over to You…

If you’re planning on sitting R06 in October, what areas do you think will pose the greatest challenge for you?