Introduction
I have been helping students through their DipFA qualification for almost two years now and this article is designed to share all the best practices, tips and strategies that can help you achieve a very good grade on this challenging exam.
I’m going to share with you some tips that have come from the reports of examiners, students I’ve worked with over the years, and I’m going to share with you a very good structure that can help you prepare.
First of all, what is the final exam about?
How does the exam work?
It’s a 3-hour written exam, soon to be typed, where you need to digest a case study beforehand, and then create a carefully written report for your fictitious client.
The case study is delivered to you in advance, approximately two weeks. You have time to prepare, read up on areas of weakness, gather some figures to back up your report, and write it completely up front. And you should too, why not, that’s why they send it to you earlier.
On exam day, you’ll get a couple of unstable changes, meaning some subtle changes to the exam that may slightly change your report, but if you’ve prepared well enough, these last-minute changes won’t cause you too much trouble.
imagine your customer
The case study will be as real as possible, there will be some anomalies and it is necessary to verify them. However, you should treat it as a real person and write the report for this person, not the examiner, although you will want to impress them for points. Be careful not to impress too much, as you could fail and the examiner could mark you for doing too much of the technical aspects.
Plain language is very important, keep in mind who the customer is and write so they understand you. Imagine them sitting with their feet up over a cup of tea, reading your report and trying to understand it as they drink their brew.
The marking system
It’s important to appreciate the marks you get from the paper so you can focus on the right area.
You get a total of 150 points –
- 10 for introduction, summary
- 10 to calculate affordability
- 30 for presentation, language, style
- 100 for his options, recommendations and advice.
So spend some time on a well-crafted introduction, calculations, and style and you’ll already have 50 points, and you only need 75 to pass.
A time-honoured structure
- Introduction
- Purpose of reporting
- synopsis of the situation
- Summary of objectives
- More information is needed
- Risk attitude
- Assessed affordability
- Immediate improvements/quick fixes
- recommendations
- Next steps
structure explained
Introduction
Begin the report by writing to the client and address him or her by name and speak in the first person, for example, “Brian, we discussed your desire to buy a home abroad and to do this I will be looking…”
Agree on the purpose of the report and this should be linked to your objectives and purposes. Talk about the information collected, but be brief here, don’t just repeat what is in the findings. Summarize to suit your own words and language to match the client
This is where you might want to start making some assumptions so you can clearly agree on your goals. This may be followed by a few questions to ask if you need more information or to confirm or clarify something. Assumptions are fine, as long as you know how to clarify them or just ask the customer to confirm them. I know in real life you wouldn’t make assumptions, but would you?
Only when you and your customer know where you are going can you really go into the report and decide what action to take.
Assessed affordability
Here you can get some useful notes to show your knowledge of income tax and national insurance to calculate how much money the client can pay for your regular income product that you are going to recommend.
Don’t space out your calculations like a textbook; instead, write them down so the customer understands them. Narrate each line of shapes so they know what you mean and can follow along.
Be precise, obviously you will get points for the correct answer. But you will get more points for jobs along the way. It’s like taking your math tests at school.
Immediate improvements/quick fixes
There may be some really quick things that could improve the situation for your customers that don’t deserve a title in the recommendations section.
For example, changing the name of the investment from husband to wife to minimize taxes or paying off a credit card or other high-interest loan with money from deposits.
recommendations
This section is worth 100 points and is the crux of the entire report. Divide your recommendations into parts and distribute the time according to their importance. Try to decide how many marks the examiner could assign to each section, and then spend the necessary time on each one.
Try to put them in order of priority as this is good financial planning practice.
Put the options to the customer, explain them and talk to the customer as you go.
Make your recommendations and justify why, using actual figures where you can. Don’t let the client decide and too many “we’ll decide when we meet again”.
You want to earn points with a strong recommendation with a justifiable reason.
If you are not qualified to advise, pass it on to someone who is or another professional, such as a lawyer.
Think about your five W’s: what, who, how, why and when, for example.
- what is the advice
- Who is involved
- How will you make it work?
- why do they need it
- When should you start it?
Next steps
The final part of the report is the next steps section. Here you’ll want to summarize things, give clear direction so the client knows your next steps, confirm your review arrangements, perhaps the fee structure.
some final tips
Keep an eye on the time: 3 hours is a long time when you’re sitting on the beach doing nothing, but it goes by very quickly when you’re having fun. Seriously though, plan your time and make sure you finish the report. You get the most grades in the first few minutes of any section, so you have to start at least every section.
Presentation and structure. It should be clearly designed and resemble a proper professional report with headings and subheadings. Perhaps tables, a series of bullets, graphs, illustrations. Why not? After all, it’s for the customer, so perhaps a risk chart works better than a wall of words. Most people today are visual in nature and pictures are worth a thousand words.
All technical terms explained. Don’t introduce a technical term without explaining it, just don’t do it. Anything a bit complex will need to be explained in words the client can understand. Beware of TLAs – three letter acronyms – our world is full of them, you know what they mean, but does your customer?
Less is more. Good communication is powerful and uses few words, just take a look at the posters and brochures; they are conservative with the use of words. Why hesitate when a short pithy statement will do? Plus you only have 3 hours to write.
Summary
Some useful ideas and tips here, I hope you agree. Remember to do as much preparation beforehand to maximize your success on the exam. good luck
