The assessment provides a streamlined route to CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification for holders of the CII Diploma in Financial Planning and CII Chartered Financial Planners
Purchase the Professional AssessmentThe online-based Professional Assessment, The Practice of Financial Planning, offers a flexible, remote route for financial planners to extend their learning.
Candidates with the CII Advanced Diploma that complete the Professional Assessment will be exempt from the CISI level 6 Advanced Financial Planning exam. They can move directly on to the CISI level 7 financial plan case study, successful completion of which leads to the CISI level 7 Diploma in Advanced Financial Planning and CFP™ certification.
Enhanced understandingThe two short units of online self-learning will take around 18 hours to complete and will cement understanding of some of the essentials of financial planning, such as establishing client relationships, financial management, financial plan analysis, tax planning and client portfolios.
Featuring a mix of interactive content, including case studies and comprehensive subject overviews, the Professional Assessment, which costs £300, seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of a key subject. Candidates have one year’s access to undertake the learning at their own pace, and are allowed two attempts for the end of module test. The questions are designed to test a candidate’s ability to apply their knowledge and analyse scenarios.
Gold standardSuccessful completion of the Professional Assessment will put candidates on a fast track to achieving CFP certification, globally recognised as the gold standard in financial planning.
In the factsheet for the Professional Assessment, Andrew Day LLB (hons) FPFS CFP™ MCSI, principal financial planning director at Depledge Strategic Wealth Management, says that at the time he achieved the title of FPFS in the mid-2000s he “felt that this was the pinnacle of demonstrating technical knowledge in financial planning – a generally recognised gold standard”.
Since then, he started to read and think about “the other gold standard of achieving CFP certification with the CISI, which is a rigorous test of applying the knowledge in a pure financial planning sense. I felt that the two achievements sit side by side for those who want to operate at the top level of this profession.
“I sat the exam in September 2020 and completed the case study in 2021. I found both a real challenge and felt that I had improved as an adviser through the process and have applied a number of aspects to how I work with clients today. I would recommend all advisers take the CFP certification.”
CFP certification pathway qualification eligibility form (CII route)