Knowledge assessment, R06 and AF5 solutions, petition for fines to offset costs

In this news update we cover:

1. Accredited CPD system – try our monthly knowledge assessment
2. Expected solution packages for April exams for R06 and AF5 - start preparing now
3. Panacea Adviser e-Petition to use FCA fines to reduce costs

1. Accredited CPD system – try our monthly knowledge assessment
The financial and technical monthly update covering areas of interest to financial advisers over January is now available. Included are 46 short articles spread over 8 areas of the financial services industry under these categories: Compliance & Regulation, Economy, Miscellaneous, Mortgages, Pensions, Protection, Savings & Investments and Taxation & Trusts. Using this aspect of the CPD system can save you a lot of time and make sure you don’t miss any essential areas of interest. In addition this is structured CPD and 1.5 hours CPD is added to your CPD certificate on completion of the assessment covering your reading time and time to take the assessment.

Your CPD certificate for this and all other training includes - Learning Outcomes, Development Needs, Reflective Statement, estimated CPD time and assessment result. You can download your CPD certificate to Excel or PDF and select the period you want it to cover. You can also use our site to record and store all your oher non Wizard Learning CPD.

Take our 10 question assessment and see if your current CPD methods would provide you with the answers:

If you want to view the reading material take our CPD system trial, the accredited CPD system page here explains how to request this.

The accredited CPD system provides over 300 hours of core CPD material including 'test your knowledge assessments’ for the core areas as well as 5 online courses to fill any knowledge gaps identified.

New focus on modules providing: key facts, short audiovisual presentations, multiple-choice assessments and case studies have recently been added with each module providing 1.5 hours of CPD.

2. Expected solution packages for April exams for R06 and AF5 - start preparing now
Purchase your expected solution package now and get access to many features to start preparing for the exam in advance of our expected solution being issued 7 days before the exam date.

Our ability to provide detailed analysis in our R06 and AF5 expected solutions is based on the fact that the CII use a similar assessment method for each exam. This allows our panel of experts to identify, based on the information supplied by the CII before the exam, the questions you could most likely expect to face in the exam itself.

Our experts are qualified to at least chartered status and have considerable experience of preparing candidates for these exams.

Our expected solution packages:

• Help you brush up on your technical knowledge
• Assist you with understanding the exam techniques required
• Identify the likely questions that will be asked
• Help you answer the likely questions in the format the CII will be looking for.

If you use all of the tools provided in our expected solution packages, we can’t guarantee you that you will pass, but we can guarantee you will be well prepared.

See our expected solution packages page here for more details.

3. Panacea Adviser e-Petition to use FCA fines to reduce costs
FCA fines should not be used by the Treasury to support Government spending. They should be used to reduce FCA costs for regulated firms.

Regulated firms are paying £264m in fees to the regulator to cover the FCA budget, in addition they are paying levies to the FSCS for the 2014/15 budget of £313m, for 2015/16 it will be set at £287m.

The levy can cause considerable distress to small advisory businesses as the sums are often large, unpredictable in amount, timing and require immediate payment.

While all this is going on, £1.37bn in fines is being ‘skimmed off’ to the Treasury and being used, assuming we actually believe the Government spin, for ‘good causes various’.

This Treasury grab is unfair, immoral & must stop.

Please read Panacea Adviser's article in full here.

And sign Panacea's e-petition at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/73479

Wizard Learning Ltd

Provider of accredited online training and CPD system for financial advisers and financial services professionals.

We are committed to helping you gain higher level qualifications and maintain this knowledge through effective continuous professional development.