The third core PSC is the Finance & Business Course which I completed last week at ULaw. This was spread across three days:
Day 1 - we covered FSMA and undertaking regulated activities as a law firm. This brought back LPC memories because we covered this in the BLP module. It was very practical in the sense that we covered different activities in different practice areas such as purchasing shares on behalf of a corporate client, advising a client on a mortgage contract or managing investments. This equated to a third of the exam so it was important to have a solid understanding. We then covered Money Laundering Regs and SRA Code of Conduct on when to act for a client or the rules surrounding a referral. For the exam, we had to cite the Code, some legislation and offences under POCA if relevant.
Day 2 - we covered a lot about investments! This was very interesting and all so new to me - we learnt about shares, gilts, bonds, unit trusts, mortgages, pensions...it makes you think damn there is so much out there I am unaware of. We went through portfolio planning so looking at the client’s attitude to risk taking and advising them on what type of investments to invest in. We also had an extract from a newspaper (e.g. Financial Times) about shares or gilts and inflation and we had to explain this to the client. And lastly, explaining a technical aspect such as the way gilts work or different types of mortgages. This I found difficult(!)
Day 3 - we sat the exam which was 1.5hrs long - it was time-intense and I don’t deal well with exam stress so I just wanted to get through it. It was an open book exam but some MCQs were horrendously difficult, I ended up guessing the answers! After the exam, we had a further class about auditing, reading balance sheets and financial reporting.
My advice: you need to make full use of those two days of revision you are given - as it is an open book exam, it is about knowing what is where, tabbing your notes, having good checklists. It was a tiring course (I must say) but it is a compulsory part of the #trainingcontract! If you have any questions, hit me up :)
I have my exam on Monday and fee completely lost, wanted to get some model answers