Overview

FinSA Client Advisor Program

According to the Swiss Federal Act on Financial Services, client advisors of domestic financial service providers who are not supervised in accordance with the Swiss financial market acts and collective capital investments and client advisors of foreign financial service providers may only exercise their activities in Switzerland if they are entered in a register of advisors. The advisor register is maintained by a registration office. The prerequisites for entry in the advisor register are amongst other things sufficient knowledge of the code of conduct under FinSA and the specialist knowledge required for the business activity.

In order to enter into the advisor register, the client advisor will therefore have to prove, by means of documents and possibly also on the basis of an oral interview, that he possesses the necessary knowledge and skills. One of the possibilities to prove the necessary knowledge is to pass the client advisor test. The exam is computer based and can be taken in a test center or from home if certain technical requirements are met. 

The client advisor exam is composed of 75 multiple-choice questions and lasts 2 1/2 hours. The exam consists of a general part and an area of specialisation. The examination topics are weighted as follows: 

FinSA Client Advisor Exam

Funds as an area of specialisation will soon become available.