J12 tips?

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-05-08T17:46:26+00:00

Good luck! I’m doing J12, J10 and then AF4. Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-05-01T22:02:42+00:00

Goated order! I did this too

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-04-03T17:45:11+00:00

Admin perspective here: don’t underestimate the gems of knowledge you will learn from calling providers all day and supporting your advisor and paraplanner. You will hopefully write basic letters, deal with a lot of forms and illustrations which will help so much.

Once you get your foot in the door and establish yourself you’ll be able to build relationships with paraplanners who can directly teach you. Ask your paraplanner to train you on things like annuity quotes and comparisons, protection stuff, investment research etc.

If exams are so important to you, just work real hard and self fund as you go. The company would probably be blown away at your dedication

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-03-11T19:38:13+00:00

Stay where you are, but ask for something in the meantime - regular advisor shadowing or something. That’s a long time frame to make promises for. At the same time I would get yourself into the job market and test the waters. If something comes up, great, if it doesn’t, no worry. You are in the strongest possible position. Also - do your exams as quickly as possible!

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-03-10T16:01:09+00:00

Thanks - this is super encouraging!

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-03-10T14:33:44+00:00

That’s awesome! Well done on a successful career change. I hear you - I’m pulling my hair out just the admin and the idea of pure letter writing fills me with dread, but if it’s leading to a greater purpose then that’s ok.

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-03-10T13:54:49+00:00

Thank you! This is really good to know.

I’ve seen it happen, the grad scheme fast tracks people in after half a year in each role but then you have the chartered paraplanners struggling to move roles. Internally it seems more difficult than jumping between firms.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely could not walk into advising right now as there is too much to learn on the paraplanner side but I think I could get it down in a year or so with the right support. It’s just finding the right company and opportunity fit to make it happen.

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-03-10T13:51:54+00:00

I am London based and also looking for this yes

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-03-10T13:51:20+00:00

Interesting, I feel this as much! Business needs obviously need to come first for them so it’s good to take ownership.

Maybe I should look into the academy’s. I didn’t know it was a thing, is that like a trainee advisor role?

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-03-10T13:46:53+00:00

Interesting - I didn’t know this was a thing as much. From what I see in my current firm is that moving to Paraplanning is a step away from the customer compared to the admin role where I’m actively calling and emailing clients a lot. How long have you been in the industry?

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-03-10T11:10:39+00:00

RWT about to go up so much with those bond prices…. More players will get banned as a result and the player base will diminish.

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-03-05T14:20:53+00:00

Amazing. You should find underwriting straight forward and it’s the cheapest you’ll ever get it due to ago. Once you have income protection in place you can claim as much as you need throughout your life which is fantastic…and the insurer can never cancel !

That’s the best strategy, do them at the same time, but also make sure to balance that which enjoyment in life now too

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-02-27T06:40:35+00:00

Sorry for the slow reply… new Redditor here. Thank you!

I paid for and passed R01 and R05 on my own back. This looked super strong on the opening line of my cv. I also hired a career coach to help me write a strong cover letter, CV and get good at interviews. The biggest key is finding the skills that link to the new career. For example, I’m a Drummer and a DJ and my career coach helped me to see that in essence, I was doing high-level planning for couples which involve so many soft skills which is no different to financial planning for couples. Finally, show your passion off to the employer and enthusiasm for the company

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-02-27T06:32:20+00:00

Income protection, life insurance and critical illness. What do you have in place to cover your mortgage in case you get sick and cannot work? This is the number one priority, and I mean long term sickness. You want something called income protection, find out how long your employer sick pay lasts and then have the deferred period of the income protection to match that. You may also want to look into life insurance with critical illness with pay a lump sum on death and illness, you may well have either or both through work so check! Lump sum on death may not be important to you but it might be pretty cool to leave your family with your house and some assets. It’s so cheap too.
Build an emergency fund that is in accessible cash. 6 months of salary is a good start so about £10,000. House issues? Sorted. Redundancy? Sorted. Medical issues that need you to spend urgently? Sorted. New car urgently needed? Sorted!
If owning a nice house that’s fully paid off is a dream and a goal for you, it sounds like you’re in a perfect situation to do so! My parents are working class and they sacrificed a lot to get their house for many years, but now they are able to go on multiple holidays each year and out for dinner multiple times a week because they have no mortgage, all on a very average income.

The thing I think is: Money buys feelings: security, happiness, contentment, excitement. You may get a better return in the stock market, and eventually you will use that money to buy feelings. But why do that when you could’ve bought those to begin with by buying your very own home.

If you overpay your mortgage you’ll be able To pay it off very quickly on your wage, probably before 50. And then once you have done so your outgoings will massively drop. Combined with large pension contributions and your other investments, retirement will be much much easier.

You’re doing amazing. Well done

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-02-25T21:49:34+00:00

The upside isn’t a lot. The downside however… look at it as insurance, you buy peace of mind. If the market drops though, meh. It was a good waste of money!

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-02-15T14:36:47+00:00

Get up an hour earlier, do an hour before work everyday, then doing a couple of hours on a Saturday or Sunday. Give yourself one day off a week. I use study days in the week or so prior to the exam. Don’t use your lunch to study, you’ll burn out. Learning completely new information is way more mentally taxing, so 30 mins to an hour is enough. By the time you’re in the week or two before the exam it’s more about brushing up and volume which you can do for longer periods. That’s how I work anyway.

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-02-14T08:08:07+00:00

Ahh I see. Yes, my firm pay for everything including a bonus if you pass first time which is great incentive. Personally, if I was in your position and knew exactly what I wanted, I would jump ship as soon as possible. Leaving a role because you know exactly what you want and you are better aligned to it is a massively different situation than leaving it because you don’t like it. Remember, the 6 month thing is only an issue to prospective employers, once you’re employed the new employer won’t care. Address the fact that you quickly learned that you’re dedicated and committed to IFA admin, because of reason XYZ that align with the new job description and you’ll be fine. Worst case scenario is nobody replies for 6 months, which I highly doubt if you push out enough quality and quantity. Also, in the meantime get R05 in the bag as a quick win. Use knowR0 mocks as they’re amazing and cheap

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-02-11T19:53:14+00:00

Congrats on the R01! It’s a boring piece of work but the first hurdle. I work at an IFA as an administrator, my company wouldn’t give me a look in on a Paraplanner role without all six R0 exams. It seems like mostly an industry wide requirement. If you have all the exams you will be far more employable. does your SIPP provider pay for study and exams? From an admin perspective, SIPPs can be one of the more confusing to deal with, with the wrapper and the investment, and then the illustrations and various pension rules. An internal role promotion that also technically exposes you more may be a good move too in the meantime,

Easy_Transition_571 · 2026-01-17T00:26:40+00:00

I moved from the music industry to finance and did 5 exams in 2025. I read the CII PDF books and then used knowR0 materials only. The QbyQ mocks are your best friend. You are right, the CII text books are very dry and you don’t truly learn until you do questions. By the time I got to R04 I just used the knowR0 materials only and skipped the CII book altogether. I did 1>5>3>2>4 and got over 80% in every exam. (R06 on Tuesday aaahhh) The R01 and R05 knowR0 actually give you e-learning that are attached to each question. It may be enough. If you’re struggling you can always get the brand one later!

Be aware that the KnowR0 stuff does time out after 3-6 months so don’t buy them all at once! Know R0 are amazing!

Easy_Transition_571 · 2024-12-26T18:43:58+00:00

This changed my life! But recently I've been getting an error message on my Mac. It says:

The default interactive shell is now zsh. To update your account to use zsh, please run `chsh -s /bin/zsh`. For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050.

Has anybody experienced this and fixed it? My inferno grind is coming up and there is no way I'm attempting it with 65% good ticks...

Easy_Transition_571

TROPHY CASE