FP I — CSI Financial Planning I Exam Blueprint

How to Use This Exam Blueprint

Use this checklist as an independent study map for the Canadian Securities Institute CSI Financial Planning I (FP I) exam, official exam code FP I. It is designed to help you convert broad financial-planning topics into practical review tasks, scenario judgment, and final-week readiness checks.

Because official weights can change, this page avoids percentage-based priorities. Treat each area as a readiness area and verify current rules, rates, contribution limits, product details, and course-specific wording against your current Canadian Securities Institute materials.

Topic-Area Readiness Table

Core “Can You Do This?” Checklist

Client Discovery and Planning Process

• Identify the correct stage of the financial planning process from a short client scenario.
• Separate client goals from constraints such as liquidity, tax, time horizon, legal obligations, and risk tolerance.
• Recognize when more information is required before advice can be given.
• Distinguish a recommendation from an implementation instruction.
• Identify which client documents support a planning file: tax returns, pay statements, pension statements, insurance policies, investment statements, wills, debt documents, business agreements, and benefit booklets.
• Explain why recommendations should be reviewed after major life events.
• Recognize conflicts of interest and disclosure requirements in plain-language scenarios.
• Choose a client-first action when product suitability, compensation, or incomplete disclosure is an issue.

Personal Financial Management

• Build a basic net worth statement from assets and liabilities.
• Build a cash-flow summary from income, fixed expenses, variable expenses, debt payments, and savings.
• Identify whether a household has a surplus, deficit, liquidity gap, or debt-management issue.
• Rank financial priorities when a client wants to invest, repay debt, build emergency savings, and insure income at the same time.
• Distinguish good liquidity from high net worth.
• Recognize the effect of high-interest debt on investment recommendations.
• Identify when budgeting, consolidation, refinancing, or behavioural spending control may be more important than product selection.

Tax and Account Selection

• Distinguish marginal tax rate from average tax rate.
• Explain the difference between a deduction and a credit.
• Identify the tax treatment of interest, dividends, capital gains, and return of capital at a high level.
• Compare taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free account outcomes.
• Explain when an RRSP contribution may be attractive and when a TFSA may be more flexible.
• Recognize why contribution room, withdrawals, eligibility, spousal issues, and beneficiary designations must be verified.
• Identify tax-sensitive placement issues between registered and non-registered accounts.
• Recognize basic attribution, superficial loss, adjusted cost base, and capital-loss planning concepts if tested in your materials.

Investment Planning

• Match risk tolerance, risk capacity, and time horizon to an appropriate investment approach.
• Distinguish capital preservation, income, balanced growth, and long-term growth objectives.
• Explain why a short-term goal generally cannot carry the same volatility as a long-term goal.
• Identify diversification benefits and limitations.
• Recognize concentration risk in employer shares, private business value, real estate, or one sector.
• Compare active, passive, pooled, managed, and self-directed approaches at a conceptual level.
• Explain how fees, taxes, liquidity, and product structure affect suitability.
• Identify when rebalancing may be appropriate.
• Recognize behavioural traps: chasing returns, recency bias, overconfidence, and panic selling.

Retirement Planning

• Identify potential retirement income sources: personal savings, registered plans, pensions, government benefits, annuities, and non-registered investments.
• Estimate whether retirement resources appear sufficient based on income need, time horizon, expected return, inflation, and longevity risk.
• Distinguish accumulation planning from decumulation planning.
• Explain sequence-of-returns risk in retirement income planning.
• Recognize the planning differences among defined benefit pensions, defined contribution plans, group RRSPs, locked-in accounts, RRIFs, and annuities.
• Identify when income splitting, spousal planning, survivor benefits, or pension options may matter.
• Recognize that retirement timing decisions may affect taxes, benefits, cash flow, and investment risk.

Insurance and Risk Management

• Identify the financial risk created by premature death, disability, illness, property loss, liability, or long-term care need.
• Compare term life insurance and permanent life insurance at a planning level.
• Distinguish insurance need from insurance product preference.
• Identify the importance of ownership, beneficiary designation, premium affordability, underwriting, exclusions, and policy review.
• Compare group coverage and individual coverage.
• Recognize when disability insurance may be more urgent than life insurance for a client with no dependants but high earned income.
• Identify risk-retention, risk-reduction, risk-transfer, and risk-avoidance strategies.
• Spot when business owners may need key-person coverage, buy-sell funding, disability overhead coverage, or succession planning.

Estate Planning

• Explain why a valid will matters.
• Identify the role of executor, attorney for property, attorney for personal care, trustee, guardian, and beneficiary.
• Recognize the planning consequences of dying without a will.
• Identify why beneficiary designations must align with the will and overall plan.
• Explain deemed disposition at death at a high level and identify assets that may create tax issues.
• Recognize spousal rollover concepts where applicable in current materials.
• Identify liquidity needs at death: taxes, debts, final expenses, probate-related costs, family support, and business obligations.
• Recognize estate complications involving blended families, minor beneficiaries, disabled dependants, private company shares, and foreign property.

Formula and Calculation Readiness

Know the purpose of each calculation, not just the arithmetic. On scenario questions, the harder step is often deciding which calculation applies.

Core Formulas to Recognize

\[ \text{Net worth} = \text{Total assets} - \text{Total liabilities} \]\[ \text{Cash-flow surplus or deficit} = \text{Income} - \text{Expenses} \]\[ \text{Future value} = \text{Present value} \times (1 + r)^n \]\[ \text{Present value} = \frac{\text{Future value}}{(1 + r)^n} \]\[ \text{Approximate real return} \approx \text{Nominal return} - \text{Inflation rate} \]\[ \text{Exact real return} = \frac{1 + \text{Nominal return}}{1 + \text{Inflation rate}} - 1 \]\[ \text{After-tax return on fully taxable income} = \text{Pre-tax return} \times (1 - \text{Marginal tax rate}) \]

Calculation Checklist

Scenario and Decision-Point Checks

Client Recommendation Decisions

Product or Strategy Selection Prompts

Tax Readiness Map

Investment Planning Readiness Map

Insurance and Risk-Management Readiness Map

Estate Planning Readiness Map

Integrated Planning: Priority-Setting Checklist

When two answers both look technically correct, the better answer often fits the client’s full situation.

• Does the recommendation address the client’s stated goal?
• Is the recommendation suitable for the client’s time horizon?
• Is the risk level appropriate for both willingness and capacity?
• Has the tax impact been considered?
• Has liquidity been preserved?
• Are debt obligations and emergency reserves addressed?
• Are dependants protected?
• Are legal documents and beneficiary designations aligned?
• Are implementation steps clear?
• Is there enough information to proceed?
• Are conflicts disclosed and documented?
• Is the recommendation reviewable if circumstances change?

Common Weak Areas and Traps

Final-Week FP I Review Checklist

Knowledge Review

• Re-read the Canadian Securities Institute learning objectives and compare them with this exam blueprint.
• Update any tax rates, contribution limits, benefit amounts, and rule details using current study materials.
• Review all formulas you are expected to apply.
• Rework examples involving RRSP/TFSA comparisons, taxable investment income, retirement income, insurance needs, and estate liquidity.
• Summarize each major account type in one page: purpose, tax treatment, contribution/withdrawal issues, beneficiary issues, and common suitability use.
• Summarize each major insurance type in one page: risk covered, benefit trigger, ownership, beneficiary, and planning use.
• Review estate-planning vocabulary until you can distinguish will, executor, trustee, beneficiary, power of attorney, intestacy, probate, and deemed disposition.

Scenario Practice

• Complete mixed practice questions rather than studying one topic at a time only.
• For every missed question, identify whether the error was knowledge, calculation, wording, or judgment.
• Practice identifying the best next step when client information is incomplete.
• Practice questions where all answers are plausible but only one is most suitable.
• Practice tax and account-selection scenarios using after-tax reasoning.
• Practice integrated cases involving tax, insurance, retirement, and estate issues together.
• Review why wrong answers are wrong, not only why the correct answer is correct.

Exam-Readiness Self-Check

Practical Next Step

Use this Exam Blueprint to mark each area as strong, review, or weak. Then spend your remaining study time on mixed FP I practice questions that force you to apply client facts, tax logic, suitability, insurance, retirement, and estate planning together.