Which CMFAS exams do you need for a career in financial advisory?

These are MAS's minimums for the products you will advise on. Your firm's compliance or HR team confirms the exact modules for your role.

Which exams for what you'll advise on

Source: MAS Notice FAA-N26 (Table 1 and its footnote, Table 2, Annex A, Table B-1), in force from 1 April 2024; MAS FAQs on FAA-N26. For general insurance, SCI points to MAS Notice 211 and Notice 502. Checked 24 September 2026.

Older guides may name modules that no longer run. SCI stopped offering CMFAS Module 5 (Rules and Regulations for Financial Advisory Services) on 28 March 2024, and CM-EIP and CM-SIP replaced Module 6 and Module 6A on 1 April 2024. MAS treats a still-valid pass in one of the old modules as a pass in CMFAS RES5, CM-EIP or CM-SIP respectively. Details are on the RES5, CM-EIP and CM-SIP pages.

MAS also lets you pass a combined module instead of the single ones:

• CMFAS CM-CIS (Collective Investment Schemes) in place of M8 and M8A, or
• CMFAS CM-LIC (Life Insurance, Investment-linked Policies and Collective Investment Schemes) in place of M8, M8A, M9 and M9A.

If you advise on securities as well as units in collective investment schemes, M8 and M8A are not enough: you need CM-EIP and CM-SIP. CM-EIP and CM-SIP also count in place of M8 and M8A. Other activities, such as derivatives, have their own rows in Table 1 of the notice; check it or ask your compliance team.

Which order to take them in

For life insurance, this is the order we recommend. It is our advice, not a MAS rule, and your employer may set its own:

1. CMFAS M9
2. CMFAS M9A
3. HI – Health Insurance or CMFAS RES5
4. whichever of HI and RES5 you haven't taken

M9 first, because it teaches the products. Its opening chapters build life insurance from the ground up: Risk and Life Insurance, Setting Life Insurance Premium, Classification of Life Insurance Products, Traditional Life Insurance Products, Riders and Participating Life Insurance Policies. The middle chapters introduce investment-linked policies (ILPs): their types, features, benefits and risks, Investment-Linked Sub-Funds, and the calculations. The rest covers annuities, then how policies work in practice: Application and Underwriting, Policy Services, Life Insurance Claims, The Insurance Contract, Law of Agency, Income Tax and Life Insurance, and Insurance Nomination, Wills and Trusts.

M9A second, because it builds on M9's ILP chapters. It takes the ILPs you met in M9 further: Introduction to Structured Products, Risk Considerations of Structured Products, Understanding Derivatives, Introduction to Structured ILPs, Portfolio of Investments with an Insurance Element, then Case Studies. With M9 fresh, M9A's 6 chapters are a short step after M9's 17.

Then HI and RES5, in either order. Neither depends on the other, and each helps with the second:

• HI moves from life cover to health cover: Medical Expense Insurance, Group Hospital and Surgical Insurance, Disability Income Insurance, Long-Term Care Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance and other types. Its later chapters, Common Policy Provisions, Health Insurance Pricing and Health Insurance Underwriting, apply ideas M9 introduced for life policies to health policies.
• RES5 sets the rules and ethics for advising on everything above. Part I is the law: the Financial Advisers Act and its regulations, MAS notices and guidelines (including MAS Notice 307 on ILPs), the Code on Collective Investment Schemes, market conduct and CPF. Part II is ethics and advising skills, from Why Professional Ethics Matter, Conflict of Interest and Fair Dealing to Fact Finding and Needs Analysis and Presentation of Analysis and Solutions to Clients. Its ILP rules read more easily once you know the products from M9 and M9A.
• The overlap: HI's chapters on MAS Notice 120 (disclosure and the advisory process for accident and health products) and Financial Needs Analysis cover similar ground to RES5's fact-finding and needs-analysis chapters, so whichever you sit second, you've met part of it already.

Taking CMFAS CM-LIP instead of M9 and M9A? Take CM-LIP first, then HI and RES5 in either order.

Insurer, adviser firm or bank: what changes

The exams above are the same wherever you work. What differs is what your employer expects in practice:

• Life insurers require their representatives to pass HI, some as a condition of joining and others within 3 or 6 months of the representative's appointment under MAS's Representative Notification Framework (RNF).
• Retail banks: almost all require HI of their sales staff. See Which CMFAS exams do you need for a bank sales job?
• Whoever you join, your employer confirms which modules your role needs and when to sit them. Ask HR or compliance before you register.

What each exam involves

*HI is SCI's Certificate in Health Insurance exam, not a CMFAS module. MAS's CMFAS notice (FAA-N26) points to MAS Notice 117 for life policies with accident and health benefits, and SCI's HI exam page refers candidates to that notice.

All four are computer-screen exams run by SCI:

• held daily on weekdays (dates can change, so check SCI's exam schedule for your module before you register)
• no limit on resits
• results are given immediately after the exam and are final
• no appeal or recheck

Source: SCI exam details pages (RES5, M9, M9A, HI) and SCI Examination Rules and Regulations. Checked 24 September 2026.

The unit-trust and general-insurance exams each have their own page: CMFAS M8, CMFAS M8A, CMFAS CM-EIP, CMFAS CM-SIP, BCP, PGI and ComGI.

Study texts:

• SCI's RES5 1st Edition (Version 1.3) and M9 7th Edition (Version 1.2) apply to exams from 22 September 2026. Our RES5 and M9 notes and practice questions were updated for these versions on 22 September 2026.
• For HI, SCI's 9th Edition (Version 1.0) applies to exams from 22 October 2026; exams before that date use the 8th Edition, Version 1.2.
• The version for every exam we cover is on our study-text versions page.

Can I take CMFAS CM-LIP instead of M9 and M9A?

Yes. MAS lets you pass the combined module CMFAS CM-LIP (Life Insurance and Investment-linked Policies) in place of M9 and M9A. CM-LIP is one 150-question, 3-hour paper with two parts, and you need at least 70% in each part. A fail in either part is an overall fail. SCI grants no exemptions from CM-LIP.

CM-LIP's advantage is one sitting and one registration. The trade-off is that SCI's current schedule lists CM-LIP twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays), while M9 and M9A run every weekday, and failing one part means re-sitting the whole paper. Dates can change, so check SCI's CM-LIP exam schedule before you register. We compare the two routes, including SCI's fees, on M9 + M9A or CM-LIP?. We don't offer CM-LIP preparation.

Do I need M9A if I have a finance degree?

You don't need M9A if you hold any of these (MAS Notice FAA-N26, Table B-1):

• a degree in finance, financial engineering or computational finance
• a degree in actuarial science or insurance
• the CFA charter

A degree with only some finance content doesn't count (MAS FAQ Q24).

A company can also set up a unit that deals only in life policies other than investment-linked ones. Representatives in that unit need not pass M9A, provided:

• the company supervises them so they don't advise on investment-linked policies, and
• they tell customers so (MAS FAQ Q22).

MAS still strongly encourages anyone advising on life insurance to pass M9A, even if they plan to sell only policies that are not investment-linked (MAS FAQ Q21). Your compliance team will confirm whether any of this applies to you.

CMFAS M9 has its own exemption list, in Annex E of the same notice.

Do I need HI – Health Insurance?

In practice, yes. All life insurers require their representatives to pass HI, some as a condition of joining and others within 3 or 6 months of the representative's appointment under RNF. Almost all retail banks also require HI of their sales staff. When your employer expects you to pass it varies, so ask HR or compliance.

The rule behind it: MAS Notice 117 sets the minimum exam requirement for health insurance. It applies to:

• direct insurers and their agents
• direct insurance brokers and their broking staff
• licensed financial advisers and their representatives
• exempt financial advisers and their representatives who advise on or arrange health insurance policies

MAS's CMFAS notice points to it for life policies with accident and health benefits.

SCI's HI page summarises an exception in MAS Notice 117. You don't need HI if:

• the health insurance products you advise on or arrange contain only critical illness benefits, hospital income benefits or both, and
• you have passed BCP (Basic Insurance Concepts and Principles) and PGI (Personal General Insurance), two modules of SCI's Certification in General Insurance, or CMFAS M9.

In practice, all life insurers require their representatives to pass HI even where the exception applies, and almost all retail banks require it of their sales staff.

What are the entry requirements?

MAS requires an appointed representative to:

• be at least 21 years old
• hold a minimum academic qualification: a GCE 'A' Level certificate with passes in at least three H2 and two H1 subjects, an International Baccalaureate Diploma, a Singapore polytechnic diploma, or an equivalent. MAS's FAQs add that a degree in any discipline is also acceptable.
• meet MAS's fit and proper criteria (Guideline FSG-G01)

What is RNF, and when can I start advising?

RNF is the Representative Notification Framework, MAS's term for how firms notify it of their representatives. You don't apply yourself:

• Your employer notifies MAS that it is appointing you and certifies that you are fit and proper.
• Your appointment then shows on MAS's Public Financial Institution Representatives Register (FIRR).
• Your firm will tell you when you can start advising.

I passed CMFAS more than three years ago but never started. Do I re-sit?

If you passed more than three years ago but never started advising, MAS requires you to re-take and pass CMFAS RES5 before you start. You don't need to re-take the product modules you passed. To advise on Specified Investment Products you need a pass in CM-SIP, M8A or M9A, depending on the product (MAS FAQ Q14).

Who pays for the exams, and do I pass before or after joining?

This varies by employer. Ask your HR or compliance team.

Last updated: 26 September 2026