S9:E7 - How I got a 99% first time pass!

In this week’s podcast episode, we talk to Ciaran Quinlan CFP™, Paraplanner at Close Brothers Asset Management, about his journey to becoming a CFP Professional following his return to the industry after a career break. At age 25, having passed all his Chartered Financial Planner exams at the first time of asking, Ciaran took the opportunity for a career break to travel around the world. Returning to the UK after a year away, he decided to sign onto Jackie’s course and study full-time on the Level 7 Financial Plan Case Study to ‘ease’ him back into the profession… ‘Ease’ however was a short-lived descriptor of Ciaran’s CFP journey! #CFP #CISI #OnlineCourse #podcast Ciaran Quinlan bio: As well as holding the Certified Financial Planner™ designation, Ciaran is a Chartered Financial Planner with the CII and a Chartered Member with the CISI. Graduating with an Economics degree from the University of Nottingham in 2018, Ciaran first discovered financial planning as a career when researching for his dissertation on ‘Population Ageing’, which focused primarily on the viability of the State Pension in the future and consequently the urgent need for enhanced private pension provision. At age 25, having passed all his Chartered Financial Planner exams first-time, Ciaran took the opportunity for a career break to travel around the world. Returning to the UK after a year away, he decided to sign onto Jackie’s course and study full-time on the Level 7 Financial Plan Case Study to ‘ease’ him back into the profession… ‘Ease’ however was a short-lived descriptor of Ciaran’s CFP journey! Having encountered numerous initial stumbling blocks that required him to restart the case study from scratch several times, Ciaran was delighted to learn in October 2023 that he had passed the case study assessment first-time with a 99% pass mark in the assessment standards. Following on from this result, he is eager to share some tips for a successful submission. Ciaran currently works as a Paraplanner at Close Brothers Asset Management where he started in January 2024 and is enjoying his new role, further developing his skills preparing and writing financial planning reports.