SEC Certified Investment Solicitor (CIS) study plan

Map the regulatory architecture: identify the regulator(s), the licensing regime applicable to investment solicitors, and the principal statutes and subsidiary instruments, drawing your own one-page structure diagram.

Summarise the core securities-law prohibitions (offering, marketing, dealing, advising) and the exemptions you would rely on in practice, in a table with the statutory source for each.

Trace the licensing and registration pathway for an individual and for a firm, listing the fit-and-proper, competence and notification obligations at each step.

Build a personal glossary of 40 regulatory terms with a one-line definition each, written from memory and then corrected against source material.

Distinguish the main market-misconduct offences (insider dealing, market manipulation, false trading) and write one worked scenario for each showing the trigger point.

Draft a client onboarding checklist covering know-your-client, suitability assessment, risk disclosure and record-keeping, citing the rule behind each item.

Compare conflicts-of-interest management, inducements and best-execution duties, and list three practical controls for each.

Apply an ethics decision framework to four short dilemmas and justify the chosen course of action in writing.

Compute and interpret core equity metrics (P/E, P/B, dividend yield, EV/EBITDA) on two real issuers and explain the divergence between them.

Explain corporate actions (rights issues, bonus issues, splits, buybacks) and calculate the theoretical ex-rights price for two worked examples.

Price a bond from its cash flows, then recompute duration and convexity under a 100bp and 200bp rate shift, showing each step.

Classify money market instruments by issuer, tenor and credit risk, and rank six instruments by liquidity with justification.

Sketch the yield curve under three rate scenarios and state what each shape implies for a fixed income allocation.

Explain forwards, futures, options and swaps in terms of payoff profile, obligation versus right, and margin or collateral mechanics.

Compute the payoff and breakeven of four option strategies (long call, covered call, protective put, bull spread) and plot each payoff from memory.

Distinguish collective investment scheme structures (open-ended, closed-ended, ETF, hedge fund) on valuation, liquidity, leverage and fee basis.

Calculate total expense ratio and the impact of a performance fee on net returns across two illustrative fund scenarios.

Identify the disclosure and eligibility constraints that apply when recommending a structured product or fund to a retail client.

Build a three-statement financial model skeleton for one listed company and derive free cash flow to firm and to equity.

Run a discounted cash flow valuation with an explicit WACC calculation, then test sensitivity to growth and discount rate.

Apply relative valuation to the same company using three peer multiples and reconcile the DCF and multiple-based values.

Assess earnings quality by identifying three accrual or accounting-policy red flags in published financial statements.

Construct three model portfolios (conservative, balanced, aggressive) with explicit asset weights and a rationale for each allocation.

Compute expected return, volatility and Sharpe ratio for each portfolio and compare against a stated benchmark.

Match five client profiles to a suitable portfolio and document the suitability reasoning for each pairing.

Draft an investment policy statement covering objectives, constraints, rebalancing rules and review frequency.

Build a risk register of ten firm-level and client-level risks, scoring each on likelihood and impact with a named mitigating control.

Explain market, credit, liquidity and operational risk measures, and compute value-at-risk for a simple two-asset portfolio.

Design a compliance monitoring plan: define three surveillance tests, their thresholds, escalation path and evidence to retain.

Map the anti-money-laundering lifecycle (identification, ongoing monitoring, suspicious transaction reporting) to concrete desk-level actions.

Re-sit a full-length timed mock and record the score per domain to expose remaining weak areas.

Re-study only the two lowest-scoring domains and rewrite the summary notes for each from memory.

Drill 60 rapid-fire recall items across all nine domains, targeting at least 85% accuracy.

Consolidate all weekly deliverables into a single indexed revision pack with a one-page formula and rule sheet.