CISI Platforms (IOC) study plan

Map the UK regulatory architecture that governs platform-based investing - FCA authorisation and permissions, the client-assets (CASS) rules, COBS conduct obligations and the role of the FSCS and FOS - into a one-page diagram you can redraw from memory.

Distinguish the main platform operating models (adviser-led, direct-to-consumer, hybrid, white-label and outsourced administration) and write two sentences on how each model shifts responsibility between platform, adviser and client.

Trace the order and custody lifecycle on a platform - instruction capture, pre-trade checks, execution venue routing, central counterparty clearing, settlement in CREST and post-trade record-keeping - and label each stage with the party accountable for it.

Explain how the consumer duty outcomes and the platform's own governance, outsourcing and operational-resilience obligations interact when a technology supplier fails.

Summarise the FCA rules on holding client money and safe custody assets, including the requirement to segregate, the treatment of interest, and the records and reconciliations a platform must maintain.

Work through the disclosure and best-execution expectations that apply when a platform routes retail orders, and note where platform policy must be documented and reviewed.

Explain the data-protection and record-retention obligations that sit alongside conduct rules, and identify which records a platform must be able to produce to the regulator on request.

Draft five exam-style questions on platform regulation and answer them closed-book, then mark your own answers against the source material.

Separate the advice, guidance and execution-only boundaries as they apply to platform services, and state precisely when a personal recommendation is triggered.

Apply the suitability and appropriateness assessment to three contrasting client profiles - a cautious retiree, a higher-rate taxpayer with a long horizon and a first-time investor - and justify the wrapper and product choices for each.

Compare the tax wrappers available on platforms (ISA, JISA, SIPP, GIA, plus onshore and offshore bonds) on contribution limits, access rules, tax treatment of growth and income, and inheritance-tax position.

Explain how in-specie transfers, re-registration and Bed-and-ISA mechanics work on a platform and where tax charges can arise.

Describe the competitive landscape - adviser platforms, D2C platforms, wealth managers, fund supermarkets and new entrants - and identify the commercial pressures driving consolidation and fee compression.

Explain the economics of a platform business: revenue from platform charges, fund-based fees, cash margin and ancillary services, set against technology, servicing and regulatory costs.

Identify the product types typically available on a platform (funds, ETFs, investment trusts, equities, bonds, structured products) and note the key risks and liquidity characteristics of each.

Link the platform's target-market and product-governance obligations to how products are selected and reviewed on the panel.

Explain trade execution and settlement mechanics in detail - trade date versus settlement date, the settlement cycle, failed trades, corporate actions and the reconciliation controls that catch errors.

Distinguish the types of cash held on a platform (client money, designated client money, platform working capital) and explain how each is protected on insolvency.

Break down a platform's charging structure - initial, ongoing, transaction, exit and ancillary charges - and calculate the total cost of ownership for a worked example over five years.

Explain how interest on cash, cash-sweep arrangements and the disclosure of charges to clients are regulated and what good practice looks like.

Explain how a platform produces valuations, prices portfolios and reports performance, including the treatment of accrued income, dividends and foreign-currency holdings.

Identify the data-quality, timeliness and reconciliation controls that underpin client reporting, and describe how errors are detected, escalated and corrected.

Map the financial-crime risks specific to platforms - source-of-wealth checks, third-party payments, PEP and sanctions screening, and the misuse of platforms for layering - to the controls that mitigate each.

Explain the platform's operational-risk framework, including incident management, business continuity and the role of the risk register and control testing.

Apply the treating-customers-fairly outcomes and the consumer duty to concrete platform scenarios - charging structures, exit processes, vulnerable clients and communications - and state what a fair outcome looks like in each.

Explain how conflicts of interest arise on a platform (retrocession, panel selection, in-house products) and how they must be managed and disclosed.

Describe how vulnerability, capacity and communication needs are identified at onboarding and how the platform must adapt its service and records.

Evaluate the ethics of inducements, marketing to inexperienced investors and the use of default options, and articulate a defensible position on each.

Revisit the weakest two domains identified in earlier self-tests and close the specific gaps with targeted reading and fresh practice questions.

Complete a full timed mock examination under exam conditions and mark it against the syllabus weightings to see where marks were lost.

Review every incorrect mock answer and write a one-line correction note for each, grouping errors by domain to expose any remaining pattern.

Rehearse the calculation types most likely to appear - platform charges, total cost of ownership and tax-wrapper allowances - until each can be done accurately without reference.