Hi there, Could a tutor please advise if there are many big changes expected for the 2015 course notes? I'm not taking any exams in the upcoming session (instead I'm taking CA2 and CA3 in August and October respectively) and am planning on sitting SA2 in April 2015 but would like to start studying in the next month or two which would mean getting the 2014 notes. Do you think this would be ok or is it advised to wait for the updated notes instead? If the latter when do you expect the new notes to be made available? Thanks very much.
I think the syllabus is due to change for the April 15 exams and substantial changes are expected to the course notes..Can I request one of the tutors to confirm this(or not)
Yes, the SA2 course will be updated for the April 2015 sitting. There are always quite a few updates in SA2 (compared to say ST2) as the SA2 course is based closely on current UK legislation and reflects the current market environment. However, the changes in the 2015 course are not as substantial as in some previous years. More than 95% of the course is unchanged. The syllabus is effectively unaltered and seven of the chapters contain no Core Reading changes at all. The 2015 course will not be available until this September. So if you want to make a start now, then I'd recommend buying the 2014 course now rather than waiting another two months or so for the 2015 version. We will be producing a CMP upgrade (free of charge on the website) which lists all the big changes to the course notes and contains a number of replacement pages for the most significant changes. So you will be able to convert your notes to the 2015 course in September. As you're reading through the 2014 course notes for the first time it's worth knowing that the tax chapters will have quite a few changes. So don't memorise particular tax rates (as many of these will change), but the overall tax system is unchanged. It's also worth knowing that the OLTB tax fund will be called the non-BLAGAB tax fund in the 2015 notes. The most significant changes to the 2015 notes will be: some comments added on the government announcement that annuities no longer need to be bought in retirement tax rates updated and some references to older rules deleted OLTB tax fund renamed as non-BLAGAB a few details on the Solvency II preparatory phase added discussion of Solvency II discount rate updated short section added on conduct risk short section added on global systemically important insurers I hope this helps you plan your studies over the summer. Good luck with SA2. Mark
