Our Post-Exam Review of the February 2026 CII AF5 Exam
Our Post-Exam Review of the February 2026 CII AF5 Exam
The CII has now released the exam guide for the February sitting of AF5 so we can see how we did in our pre-exam analysis.
This article is correct as at 21 April 2026.
If you haven’t already seen the exam guide for February, you can access it here.*
This time, the fact-find, released two weeks prior to the exam, concerned Owen and Alice, a retired couple seeking advice following a change in their circumstances.
The objectives, given on exam day, were as follows:
Immediate objectives
- Improve the tax-efficiency of their financial arrangements.
- Evaluate the affordability of purchasing a property as a temporary home for their daughter.
- Assess the suitability of their current investment funds.
Longer-term objectives
- Ensure that their daughter’s share of their estate is protected during her divorce.
- Mitigate any future Inheritance Tax liability on second death.
- Ensure they have sufficient income throughout retirement.
| 1. | (a) Identify the additional information that you would require in order to advise Owen and Alice on the suitability of their current financial arrangements to meet their immediate objectives. | As expected, the exam started with a fact-finding question. We advise all candidates to memorise all the additional information that would be needed to advise the candidates on each of their objectives. This will enable candidates to get off to a flying start in their AF5 exam! Our analysis had provided full model answers. |
| (b) Identify the issues that you would need to take into consideration to determine if you are providing ‘fair value’ in your services to Owen and Alice to ensure that you comply with Consumer Duty rules. | This was a generic question not linked to the fact-find but linked to the financial advice process, so not something candidates were likely to have specifically revised. However, it is an area most candidates should be familiar with, focusing on the “fair value” aspect of Consumer Duty. We hope candidates were able to draw on their own knowledge and experience to gain good marks. It’s interesting to note that 3 out of the last 5 AF5 exams have had a question around Consumer Duty. |
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| 2. | (a) Explain to Owen why he may wish to consider deferring his State Pension. | Deferring State Pensions was a clear tax-efficient strategy and therefore highly likely to be examined. This action was highlighted many times throughout our analysis, and model answers were provided. |
| (b) Identify the tax issues that you should discuss with Owen in respect of the contributions into his new workplace pension scheme. | If candidates had crunched the numbers before the exam, it was clear that Owen was going to breach the £10,000 MPAA limit. We had provided a technical note on triggering the MPAA which provided the detail required to pick up the majority of marks for this question. | |
| 3. | (a) Explain in detail to Alice why she should consider adjusting the level of income withdrawals from her personal pension plan. | As with deferring State Pension, reducing income from FAD was an obvious step to improve tax efficiency. Our experts who author our analysis are experienced at identifying the likely subjects and the most likely exam questions around each subject hence we provided full model answers for this specific question. |
| (b) Identify the key issues that Alice should take into consideration when establishing a safe level of withdrawal from her pension fund. | Sustainable retirement income was a clear objective of the clients. Our analysis team always provide a list of ‘issues’ (‘factors’) for each of the client’s objectives hence our analysis included a list of all the issues needed to be considered to provide a sustainable retirement income. | |
| 4. | (a) Explain to Owen and Alice the financial and tax implications for them if they purchase a property in their names to provide a temporary home for their daughter. | It was stated in the fact find that they are considering purchasing the property for their daughter. Whenever there is a stated intention such as this it’s important that candidates consider the benefits and drawbacks and the financial implications of the action. Our analysis had considered all angles and we hope well prepared candidate were able to pick up good marks here. |
| (b) Identify any Inheritance Tax implications for Owen and Alice of paying Helen’s rent and continuing to support her financially during her divorce. | This was a question where there appeared to be a lot of marks available but only two or three obvious points. With questions like this, it is important to be mindful of the marking scheme. The CII will often group points together where a question is broad. For example, if asked generally about improving tax efficiency, mentioning gifting allowances might only gain one mark. However, in a more focused IHT question, these can be broken down, for example: the £3,000 annual exemption, use of previous years’ allowances (up to £12,000), and gifts from normal expenditure - each gaining separate marks. This is because the examiner is not looking for a broad range of taxation points across all areas, but instead is focusing on a specific area, i.e. IHT. |
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| 5. | (a) Recommend and justify the actions that Owen and Alice should take to protect any future inheritance for Helen from her impending divorce proceedings. | This was a tougher question and not so easily predicated from the analysis – we’ve got to expect one or two such questions, this is after all a level 6 paper! We hope candidates were able to draw on their own knowledge to pick up some of the key points. |
| (b) Explain to Owen and Alice the tax issues they should consider, before using a withdrawal from the Loan Trust to assist them in purchasing a property for Helen to rent during her divorce. | Given the gain on the loan trust and the length of time it had been held, it was likely there would be a question around withdrawing money. We hope candidates were able to adapt the model answer provided in the analysis to answer this specific question. | |
| 6. | (a) Recommend and justify a range of actions that Owen and Alice can take to improve the tax-efficiency of their current financial arrangements. | We had covered a recommend and justify questions in relation to improving the tax efficiency whilst Owen is working. We hope candidates were able to pick up the extra few marks by including actions to meet their longer-term objectives such as using the annual gifting allowance. |
| (b) Outline the key issues that Owen should take into consideration before deciding to transfer his pension benefits from his new employer’s workplace pension scheme into his Monarch Life personal pension plan when his contract ends. | This was definitely a curveball question and very difficult to predict as the CII don’t usually examine an action that should take place in a couple of years’ time. However, it was quite a straightforward question for a level 6 exam, so it was good to see from the examiners comments that candidates had performed well. | |
| 7. | (a) Outline the key reasons why the Mixed Bond funds held in Owen and Alice’s Loan Trust may be unsuitable in meeting their long-term objectives. | The mixed bond fund stood out as being unsuitable and our analysis had covered the drawbacks of being invested in the fund. |
| (b) Explain to Owen why he may wish to consider investing in a Global Exchange Traded fund in his workplace pension scheme. | Exchange traded funds were flagged as being offered in Owen’s pension scheme. Candidates should always revise the benefits and drawbacks of any fund highlighted in this way. We had provided full model answers. | |
| 8. | (a) Identify the key drawbacks for Owen and Alice of retaining the National Savings & Investments Premium Bonds throughout retirement. | Owen and Alice have been disappointed with the prizes from the NS&I bonds. Again, anything clearly signposted like this flags the need to study the benefits and drawbacks and financial implications for the clients of holding them or selling them. Its almost certain to be examined! Our analysis had hence provided full model answers to this exact question. |
| (b) State the key issues that you should discuss with Owen and Alice at your next review meeting in respect of the tax-efficiency of their financial arrangements. | A nice question to round off the exam. As with the ‘additional information’ questions - AF5 candidates should memorise all the issues you would discuss with the client at the next annual review in respect of all of their objectives as history tells us it’s likely to pick you up some easy marks. | |
Chartered Insurance Institute (2026). AF5 – Financial planning process: February 2026 Examination Guide. Retrieved from www.cii.co.uk.
A Post-Exam Review of the February 2026 #CII #AF5 Exam. Share on X
Overall, this paper offered up a lot of questions that could easily have been predicted from the fact-find. There was also a standard ‘fact-finding’ question and ‘annual review meeting’ question. Whilst there were a couple of curveballs in there, these were not worth big marks.
This AF5 paper highlighted the importance of understanding the AF5 exam and the need to:
- Memorise all the missing information in respect of all the client’s objectives.
- Memorise a list of the ‘factors’ (or ‘issues’) an adviser needs to consider when advising the clients on each of their objectives (note: you should be able to use some of the missing information from no. 1 above)
- Understand all the benefits and drawbacks and the financial (including taxation) implications of each of the proposed actions/proposed products.
- Memorise all the benefits and drawbacks of any highlighted funds.
- Memorise all the issues you would discuss with the client at the next annual review in respect of all of their objectives.
Just focusing on these key aspects of revision will usually pick you up around half the marks on offer!
Grab the resources you need!
Not sure how to approach the fact-find or what the examiner is really looking for? Our resources help you work through realistic scenarios with model answers, so you can see how your knowledge translates into marks in the exam. Download a free taster to preview how the full analysis works.
* The CII has updated their retention policy and now only provides the last two exam papers. Older papers referenced in this article may no longer be available on the CII website.
