The April 2017 CII J11 Exam was a Fair Paper

Here, we take a look at the questions that were asked of candidates in the April 2017 CII J11 exam. Planning to sit the next J11 exam? This will help you.

The J11 exam (wrap and platform services) was launched in 2012 – since then the market continues to evolve and the manual has had quite extensive re-writes. As far as the exam is concerned, it appears at times as if preparing should be quite straightforward.

You can find the latest exam – April 2017 – here:

http://www.cii.co.uk/media/7495511/j11_april_2017_qp.pdf

It seems on first glance quite a fair paper.

Section A

The first question required stating 8 main platform features when providing initial investment advice, then for 12 marks, candidates had to explain the main functions of a custodian.  There was then a question that has been asked before on explaining the main differences in explicit charging compared to implicit charging.  Question 4 asked for the main risks to an adviser arising from their use of tools on a platform where a client is taking income from their portfolio, followed by 8 marks for stating the main areas that would go into a suitability report.  The final question in Section A was around auto enrolment, where candidates had to state eight main areas of platform functionality that would help a company with AE.

Section B

This section is made up of 2 essay questions for total of 60 marks.  The first one involved a widow wondering whether she should transfer her portfolio to the same platform as her deceased husband.  For 16 marks, candidates had to describe the main factors that an adviser would consider in respect of providing flexible income and withdrawals from both investments and pensions, and for 14 marks, state 7 benefits and 7 drawbacks to the client of transferring to the platform compared to holding the investments directly.

The second essay-style question was around re-platforming, the main risks of this, from the client’s perspective, and the main stages of client money processing.

Comparing to the October 2016 Paper

Comparing this with October’s paper, most areas tested were in the main different; questions featured on the review process, share classes, risks of using platform tools, the advantages of using a third-party technology provider, the re-registration process, main areas of due diligence, changes that happened in April 2016, main uses of a cash account and describing various income and withdrawal options, which included giving basic tax treatment of an ISA, an investment bond and GIA capital.

Examiner’s Comments

The examiner’s comments are always worth a read, and the comment from October 2016, was that questions around the technical/administrative operation of platforms cause problems for some candidates.  As this area will continue to be tested, it’s worth new students taking note.

There was also an interesting comment made that candidates are reproducing model answers from previous exam guides where they perhaps aren’t totally relevant to the current question being answered; that age old exam tip of reading the question properly and ensuring you are answering that question continues to apply.

What is good to read, though, is that exam technique has improved, with more candidates focusing their answers using bullet points. This is good news as students will save time by answering in this way, and it stops them from waffling, which rarely gets more marks.

Other useful comments include that, whilst the study text is the main source of learning material, candidates should also keep up to date with any developments in the platform market. They also say that students should be aware of the difference between features and benefits, as well as the depth of understanding needed around the subject to answer Section B questions, where there are big marks at stake.  Finally, it’s important to revise across all syllabus areas, particularly those not directly related to advice-related issues.

Pass Rates

The pass rates for the J11 exam are given below where you can see they have dropped since 2013.  It will be interesting to see how the 2016 figures look when they come out.

Grab the resources you need!

If you’re studying for your CII J11 exam, and you’re concerned about the outcome, grab our free taster to try out one of Brand Financial Training’s mock exam papers for yourself.  Click the link to download the J11 mock exam taster now!

Over to You…

Do you plan to sit the J11 exam in the near future? How do you think you’ll do?