Financial Adviser Accreditation Autumn Round 13

Who can apply for accreditation?

You can apply for accreditation if you are an associate of Resolution and your membership subscription is up to date.

You must also:

• Hold a valid Statement of Professional Standing (SPS)
• Hold QCF Level 4
• Be able to provide evidence you are qualified to undertake Regulated Activity 11 (Pension Transfer Specialist), whether you are actively registered to or not. The qualifications held must meet ApEx1 competencies.
• Be able to provide evidence independent or restricted financial adviser, in line with SRA guidance, but not tied to just one provider and with the personal authority to advise ‘off panel’ should the case require it.
• Work on a non-product related hourly or fixed fee basis; directly invoicing clients for this work.
• Take authority to assume agency and advise personally upon the client’s existing financial products.
• Be able to provide evidence of eight hours CPD in family relationship breakdown, separation or divorce related subjects in each of the last three years.

Eligibility is considered without reference to race, religion, belief, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age.

In considering these entry criteria, we are and remain alert to and mindful of the various business models that regulated Financial Advisers might use, in terms of the scope of advice and charging structures.

However, it is vital to note that significant elements of the specialist work that we are assessing, in relation to this accreditation, are unregulated.  For example, the role of the financial neutral, or cash flow modelling.

There must be no assumption that undertaking this work might predetermine a possibility of any regulated activity or regulated intermediary work.

For this reason, it is vital that potential candidates are able to certify that they can conduct this work, on a pure fee basis (either time charged, fixed fee or a mix of the two), without any expectation of future regulated activity.

What will I need to do?

To achieve Resolution accredited status, you must pass two assignments:

1. The Core Assignment: an open-book assignment, taken over a set weekend, which assesses your ability to fulfil the competencies set out in the Prospectus.
2. Portfolio Assignments: the creation of two portfolios of work to prove you have the knowledge and experience outlined in the Prospectus in two different topic areas. You will have approximately eight weeks to complete the portfolio assignments.

 You must pass both assignments to qualify as an Accredited Specialist.

We run one round of FA accreditation each year and you can take the assignments in the same round or separately.

Taking the assignments separately means you can complete the Core Assignment at an early stage of specialist experience and then to take the Specialist Portfolios over the following two years. For those who are more experienced, the Core and Portfolio Assignments can be taken at the same time, or in separate assessment rounds.

If you take the assignments separately, you must take and pass the Core Assignment before progressing to the Portfolio Assignments. Both assignments must be completed within a three-year period.

What’s the Core Assignment?

The Core Assignment consists of one case study with four questions. You will need to answer all the questions and one will focus on pensions.

What are the Portfolio Assignments?

Over about eight weeks you will need to complete two portfolio assignments from the following options:

• Pensions (mandatory for all applicants)
• Cashflow modelling and budgeting
• Taxation and State Benefits

For each specialist area there are two elements to the assignments:

1. A case study with four questions
2. Two reflective case accounts