How to Answer Financial Adviser Exam Case Study Questions (with a Worked Example)

9 min read · facts checked 25 Oct 2026

As at 25 October 2026, ASIC's practice question guidance (version 16.1, July 2024) says the exam includes several client scenarios or case studies covering different types of advice, and in ASIC's 64-question practice set, 12 scenarios carry 50 of the questions. Most of your marks depend on reading a client file quickly and applying the law and the Code of Ethics to it.

What a case study looks like

• A scenario describing one or more clients, their goals and finances, and an adviser, followed by several questions. In ASIC's practice set the scenarios run to roughly 140–390 words, with 2 to 8 questions each.
• The questions are four-option multiple choice or true/false sets, one mark each. A true/false set earns its mark only if every part is right.
• A relevant statutory extract, such as a Corporations Act section or a Code of Ethics standard, can come with the question. Regulatory guides are not supplied.
• ASIC lists financial planning, superannuation, stockbroking, SMSFs and insurance among the types of advice covered.
• The number of scenarios in a live sitting is not published.

A six-step method

• 1. Look at the questions, then read the scenario. Glance at what the questions ask so you read the case with a purpose: a disclosure point, a conflict, a scope issue. ACER says answers entered during the 15 minutes' reading time are not saved, so use that time to read.
• 2. Map the people and their roles. Who is the retail client, who gives the advice, whether they are an authorised representative or a provisional relevant provider, who the licensee is and who issues the product. Many answers turn on who owes which duty.
• 3. Mark the facts that change the answer. Ages, amounts, timeframes, what the client asked for, what they said they do not want, health, family pressure, and anything the adviser was not told.
• 4. Name the area being tested. Legal (Chapter 7, AML/CTF, privacy, tax (financial) advice), ethics (Code standards, frameworks, biases) or advice construction (suitability, scope, risk). Recall the rule before you read the options.
• 5. Read any extract against the facts. If a section is supplied, the question usually turns on one element of it. Test each element against the scenario.
• 6. Eliminate, then choose the best answer. ASIC's practice guidance tells you to pick the best answer to the question asked, even where more than one option looks right. Watch the qualifiers MOST, BEST, FIRST and NOT.

Red flags to look for

See how much has stuck: sit the free timed mock: try 5 questions with no sign-up. Or see the passes for the full question bank.

Worked example

Case study: Mei Lin. Mei Lin, 58, is a primary school teacher in Brisbane who plans to retire at 63. She owns her home outright, has A$35,000 in savings and A$410,000 in her industry super fund's balanced option, which includes default death and total and permanent disability cover. She books a meeting with Daniel, an authorised representative of Harbour Advice Pty Ltd, and asks one question: should she make extra contributions to super before she retires? In the fact-find she says she is "nervous about the share market" after watching her balance fall last year. At the end of the meeting she mentions that her son has asked to borrow A$30,000 for his café and that she is inclined to say yes. Harbour Advice is owned by Harbour Group, whose subsidiary issues the Harbour Balanced Super fund. Daniel is thinking of recommending that Mei Lin roll her super into that fund, where the fees are slightly lower.

Question 1. Mei Lin asked only about extra contributions. What should Daniel do about the A$30,000 loan to her son? (a) Ignore it, because it is outside the subject matter she asked about. (b) Decline to give any advice until she has decided on the loan. (c) Treat it as part of her relevant circumstances, ask about it, and take its effect on her savings and contribution capacity into account. (d) Refer her to a lawyer, because a family loan is a legal matter rather than a financial one.

Answer: (c). Section 961B(2)(b)(ii) asks the adviser to identify the circumstances that would reasonably be considered relevant to the advice sought. Lending A$30,000 of A$35,000 in savings bears directly on how much she can contribute and on her cash buffer, and Code Standard 6 asks Daniel to consider the broad effects of acting on his advice. (a) is the trap: advice can be scaled, but not by ignoring facts that bear on the subject. (b) goes too far, as nothing requires her to decide first. (d) may help with the loan paperwork, but it does not remove Daniel's duty to take the loan into account.

Question 2. If Daniel recommends the rollover to Harbour Balanced Super, which of the following MUST the Statement of Advice include? (a) The Harbour Balanced Super PDS, combined with the SOA in one document. (b) Information about any costs of leaving her current fund and joining the new one, and any benefits she may lose, such as her existing insurance cover. (c) Daniel's commission rate for every product on the licensee's approved list. (d) A statement that the recommendation is general advice only.

Answer: (b). Section 947D(2) requires an SOA that recommends replacing one product with another to set out the charges on disposal and acquisition, any benefits the client may lose and other significant consequences. (a) breaks s 947E, which bans combining an SOA with a PDS or FSG. (c) overshoots: the SOA must disclose remuneration and benefits that might reasonably influence this advice (s 947C(2)(e)), not every rate on the list. (d) is wrong because this is personal advice. Separately, the Harbour Group link is an association that must be disclosed (s 947C(2)(f)) and a conflict in which Daniel must give priority to Mei Lin's interests (s 961J); Code Standard 3 makes him ask whether he can act at all. A slightly lower fee is not enough on its own: the investigation must also weigh the insurance she would lose (s 961B(2)(e)).

Question 3 (true/false). (i) Because Mei Lin is nervous about the share market, Daniel must recommend she move her super to a cash option. (ii) If Mei Lin will not give details of the loan and Daniel can see her information is incomplete, he must warn her that the advice may be based on incomplete information and that she should consider whether it is appropriate before acting.

Answer: (i) false, (ii) true. Risk tolerance is one input, not an instruction: s 961B(2)(f) requires judgements based on all her relevant circumstances, including a retirement that may last decades, and she asked about contributions, not her investment option. Statement (ii) restates s 961H(1); the warning goes with the advice and can sit in the SOA, and it does not replace the duty to make reasonable inquiries (s 961H(5)). You need both parts right for the mark.

Timing a case study

At exam pace, about 2 minutes 47 seconds a question, a case with six questions is worth about 17 minutes, reading included. If one question stalls you, choose your best answer, flag it and move on: marks are not deducted for wrong answers, and unanswered questions stay unshaded in the navigation bar. Come back once the rest of the case is done; later questions often settle an earlier doubt.

Common mistakes

• Adding facts that are not in the scenario. Answer on what you are told.
• Answering from industry habit instead of the law or the Code.
• Treating legal as ethical. ASIC's learning outcomes include spotting conduct that meets the Corporations Act but breaches the Code: see the Code of Ethics guide.
• Missing whose duty the question is about: the adviser, the supervisor or the licensee.
• Rushing the second statement in a true/false set after doing the work on the first.

Practise on whole scenarios

Our free financial adviser practice exam is a timed mock of 20 original questions in 30 minutes across all three areas, mostly on client scenarios. You can try 5 questions with no sign-up, each marked with a worked answer; the full timed mock needs a free account. Sit it in one go, apply the six steps to every case, and read each worked answer against the section or standard behind it. The best interests duty guide and the SOA guide cover the rules this example turned on.