FPSB Retirement & Tax Specialist study plan

Map the Domain 1 blueprint into a checklist of every retirement-planning subtopic and rate your current confidence on each from 1 to 5

Define and contrast registered retirement vehicles, employer-sponsored plans, and individual savings accounts so you can state contribution limits, tax treatment of contributions, and taxation at withdrawal for each

Calculate the after-tax value of a contribution under both up-front and deferred taxation at a single assumed marginal rate, then repeat at a lower retirement rate and explain the difference

Build a one-page glossary of retirement-planning terms you cannot yet define without notes

Compute retirement income needs using the replacement-ratio and expense-based approaches, and reconcile why the two figures diverge

Work through accumulation math for annual contributions with compounding, solving for future value, required annual saving, and years-to-target

Explain how inflation, wage growth, and pre- versus post-retirement return assumptions change projected capital needs

Draft a defensible assumption set (returns, inflation, longevity) and justify each assumption in writing

Analyze decumulation strategies including systematic withdrawals, annuitization, and phased drawdown, and state the main risk each one addresses and leaves exposed

Quantify sequence-of-returns risk by running the same average return in two different orders and comparing terminal portfolio values

Evaluate longevity risk and the role of guaranteed-income floors, pooling, and mortality credits in a retirement income plan

Identify the coordination points between public retirement benefits, employer plans, and personal savings in a client's drawdown plan

Synthesize a full retirement plan for a hypothetical client, from fact-finding through recommendation, and document every assumption

Stress-test the plan against early retirement, a market drawdown in the first two years, and a five-year increase in life expectancy

Explain how spousal, survivor, and dependent considerations change contribution and withdrawal decisions

Time yourself on Domain 1 practice items and log every miss by subtopic

Map the Domain 2 blueprint into a checklist of tax subtopics and rate your confidence on each from 1 to 5

Distinguish marginal, average, and effective tax rates and compute all three from a sample income profile

Trace how ordinary income, capital gains, and qualified dividends are taxed differently, including how preferential rates stack on top of ordinary income

Build a tax-term glossary covering at least 30 concepts you must recognize instantly

Explain the mechanics of tax-advantaged retirement accounts on both the contribution and distribution side, including deduction limits, phase-outs, and early-withdrawal penalties with their exceptions

Compare Roth versus traditional treatment across a saver whose tax rate rises, falls, and stays flat, and identify the break-even rate

Analyze required minimum distribution rules and compute a required distribution from a stated balance and divisor

Describe how capital gains and losses are netted and how loss carryforwards affect a multi-year plan

Integrate retirement and tax planning by identifying how each contribution, conversion, and withdrawal decision changes both the retirement projection and the current-year tax position

Model a partial Roth conversion in a low-income year and quantify the tax cost against the projected future tax saving

Analyze withdrawal sequencing across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts and rank orderings by after-tax terminal wealth

Identify the tax traps that most often appear in retirement cases: early-withdrawal penalties, benefit taxation, and estate or beneficiary tax consequences

Complete two full-length timed mock exams under exam conditions and record scores by domain and subtopic

Re-drill every missed item from weeks 1 through 7 until you can explain the underlying rule without notes

Memorize the limits, thresholds, and rates you repeatedly miss using spaced repetition across the final five days

Write a one-page exam-day strategy covering question triage, calculation pacing, and flag-and-return rules