Difficulty: 8.5

Focuses on the role of planning for insurance needs. Covers basic concepts in risk management and insurance, insurance industry operations, legal principles pertaining to the industry, and regulation of insurers. Examines social insurance, life insurance and annuities, medical and disability income insurance, long-term care insurance, and personal property and liability insurance. Concludes with an overview of commercial property and liability insurance and a case study.

Difficulty: 7

Focuses on life insurance policies and annuities available for personal needs of individuals, and their use in financial planning. Covers individual insurance products and insurance reserves regulation. Also covers insurance company organization, operations, and investments.

Difficulty: 8

Examines legal rights and obligations of the policy owner and the insurance company, the way disputes between insureds and insurers are resolved, and general principles of the judicial process. Covers legal aspects of life insurance, including basic principles of contract law; policy provisions and the incontestable clause; assignments, ownership rights, and creditor rights; beneficiary designations and disposition of proceeds; the law of agency; and advertising and privacy issues.

Difficulty: 9

Covers various aspects of estate and gift tax planning, including the nature, valuation, transfer, administration, and taxation of property. Provides a basic understanding of the estate and gift tax system, including strategies of estate planning. Discusses gratuitous transfers of property outright or with trusts, wills, and powers of appointment; use of the marital deduction; valuation of assets; and buy-sell agreements. Covers the client interview, fact-finding, ethical standards, and development of personal estate plans.

Difficulty: 8.5

Focuses on tax and legal aspects of organizing a business; compensation planning for the business owner; business succession planning; buy-sell agreements; estate planning and estate freezing techniques; methods for transferring a family business; lifetime disposition of a business interest—taxable and tax-free dispositions and the use of the installment sale and other methods; business uses of life and disability insurance for the benefit of business owners; disability buy-sell agreements; risk management for a closely held business; and the special problems of professional corporations.

Difficulty: 7

Provides an overview of the financial planning process, including communication techniques, ethics, risk tolerance, time-value-of-money concepts, financial planning applications, regulatory issues, and the legal and economic environment for financial planning. Offers an understanding of the role and responsibilities of a financial planner along with some analytical skills to aid in financial decision-making.

Difficulty: 8

Examines the federal income tax system with particular reference to the taxation of individuals. Covers such items as items of gross income, exclusions from gross income, deductions, tax credits, capital gains and losses, taxation of life insurance and annuities, income taxation of partners, partnerships, corporations, and shareholders.

Difficulty: 8

Focuses on retirement planning for the business, the business owner, and the individual. Covers qualified plans, nonqualified plans, and IRAs and deals with retirement needs for individual clients. Emphasizes the practical knowledge needed for choosing the best retirement plan and designing a plan that will meet a client's needs. Discusses personal retirement planning and retirement distribution planning.

Difficulty: 10

Covers various aspects of the principles of investments and their application to financial planning. Discusses risk analysis and risk and return computations. Looks at stocks, bonds, investment companies, options, and futures contracts. Includes an extended discussion of tax issues in investing, as well as of issues in the practice of portfolio management, including strategic and tactical asset allocation. Provides many examples of ethical and practical issues in managing a client's portfolio.

Difficulty: 9.5

Covers estate and gift tax principles with emphasis on life insurance planning applications. Discusses forecasting the gross estate, life insurance trusts, valuation principles, the use of charitable contributions as an estate planning technique, planning opportunities stemming from the marital relationship, the taxation of trusts, implications of employee benefits, and estate freezes. Includes a case study reflecting procedural aspects of estate planning.