CISI Financial Planning & Advice Past Papers: What Exists (2026)
No public past papers exist for CISI Financial Planning & Advice. Here's the official material that does, and where to get current, weighted 80-question mocks.
Financial Planning and Advice candidates hunt for past papers for a good reason: this is a scenario-driven exam, and suitability questions only get easier once you have worked through dozens of them. The honest answer is that CISI does not publish past papers for it. One sample paper exists, the official workbook has its own questions, and everything else you will find online is unofficial and usually written against superseded rules.
This page covers what official material exists, why stale PDFs are a liability when nearly half the marks ride on pension rules, and how to get the past-papers experience with current material.
The paper you are preparing for
| Qualification | Investment Advice Diploma (Level 4), technical unit |
| Questions | 80, multiple choice |
| Time | 2 hours |
| Pass mark | 70%, no negative marking |
| Format | Computer based |
Eighty questions in two hours works out at 90 seconds each, spread across five elements with retirement planning and retirement solutions together carrying nearly half the marks. Where the rest of the marks concentrate, and how to revise for the scenario style, is in our guide to passing Financial Planning and Advice.
What CISI actually gives you
One official sample paper. A single specimen paper written to the live standard. Sit it once, properly timed, late in your revision, because you only get one clean read of it.
The workbook. End-of-chapter questions and a practice paper at the back. Do them, but they are a fixed set: once you have seen them, re-sitting them measures your memory of the answers rather than your judgement on a fresh scenario.
Revision Express and the CBT demo. Revision Express is CISI's paid online revision add-on, and the free Prometric demo shows how the on-screen test behaves. Five minutes with the demo means no marks lost to unfamiliar software.
Remember too that IntegrityMatters, CISI's short online integrity test, is a prerequisite before you can sit the paper.
Why old planning material is a poor shortcut
Pensions are the part of the syllabus the Treasury keeps rewriting. Annual allowances, tapering, the treatment of tax-free cash and the rules around taking benefits have all moved in recent years, and protection and ISA detail shifts with them. A mock written a few years ago tests a rulebook that no longer exists, and because these questions turn on precise figures and current rules, a stale paper does not just waste your time, it trains confident wrong answers. The unofficial PDFs on Scribd and the forums are also unverified, with no way to tell whether the keys were ever right.
The alternative: current, weighted mock papers
What "past papers" really means is renewable, exam-standard practice in the real format. Passkey gives Financial Planning and Advice full mock papers, each 80 questions in two hours, weighted element by element like the real exam, including exam-standard papers drawn from a reserved pool that practice mode never touches, so a mock is always a genuinely unseen test. Questions are written from scratch against the current syllabus and current allowances, every answer carries a full explanation, and the weak-spot tracker shows whether it is the retirement detail or the protection products costing you marks.
Your mock scores become a forecast rather than a hope. And the forecast is backed: average 80% or higher across your last three Passkey mocks, sit the real exam within 30 days, and if you do not pass, we refund you in full.
Start free. Try a set of free Financial Planning and Advice practice questions, or take the free diagnostic to see which elements need work before you spend anything.
Every Financial Planning and Advice revision resource, in one list
- The official CISI workbook, current edition, from the CISI shop. The single source of truth for the syllabus.
- The official sample paper, sat once under the clock.
- CISI Revision Express (paid) and the free Prometric CBT demo.
- Passkey: the full question bank, weighted 80-question mocks with a reserved unseen pool, explanations and weak-spot tracking. £59 once covers all nine exams we support, for up to three months; see pricing.
- Free practice questions and the free diagnostic.
- Our guide to passing Financial Planning and Advice, and for the diploma's core tax paper, Investment, Risk and Taxation past papers.
Passkey is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. For the picture across every paper, see CISI past papers: what's actually available.
Frequently asked questions
Does CISI publish past papers for Financial Planning and Advice?
No. One official sample paper exists, plus the questions in the official workbook. Previously sat papers are never released and the live bank rotates, so leaked sets would not transfer to your sitting anyway.
What is the format of the CISI Financial Planning and Advice exam?
80 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours, computer based, with a 70% pass mark and no negative marking. It is a technical unit of the Level 4 Investment Advice Diploma, taken instead of Securities or Derivatives, with the questions spread across five elements.
Are old Financial Planning and Advice PDFs safe to revise from?
Treat them sceptically. Pension allowances and the rules around taking benefits have changed repeatedly in recent years, so material written against an old workbook edition trains answers that are now wrong. The documents are also unofficial, so the keys themselves are unverified.
How many mock exams should I sit before booking?
At least two or three full, timed, weighted 80-question mocks, and book when you are clearing 70% comfortably on each, with your retirement and protection scores strong rather than propped up by the lighter elements. A consistent margin across several papers is evidence; a single good score can be luck.
Find your weak spots before exam day.
Start free with chapter 1 of every exam, take the free diagnostic to see where you stand, then unlock everything for one payment of £59, backed by our 80% mock guarantee.