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WME Exam 2 Retirement & Estate Planning Case Guide

CSI WME Exam 2 topic guide for retirement & estate planning, with case lessons, priority cues, planning traps, and review priorities.

Retirement & Estate Planning is a WME Exam 2 topic weighted at 23%. Use this landing page to frame the case issue first, then move into the chapter lessons for the exact discovery, tax, retirement, estate, investment, securities, product, or monitoring cue.

What This Topic Is Testing

WME Exam 2 questions in this topic test whether a candidate can extract the controlling facts from a case. Focus on goals, deadlines, liquidity, risk capacity, tax, legal and family issues, product fit, missing information, and the first defensible next step.

Chapter Lessons

LessonMain review cue
Registered Retirement Savings PlansRRSP room, deduction timing, spousal plans, withdrawals, retirement savings adequacy, and tax trade-offs
Employer-Sponsored Pension Plans and Funding Retirementretirement income sources, pension decisions, CPP/OAS context, cash-flow sustainability, and income protection
Government Pensions Programsretirement income sources, pension decisions, CPP/OAS context, cash-flow sustainability, and income protection
Retirement Planning Processretirement income sources, pension decisions, CPP/OAS context, cash-flow sustainability, and income protection
Protecting Retirement Incomeretirement income sources, pension decisions, CPP/OAS context, cash-flow sustainability, and income protection
Wills and Powers of Attorneyestate documents, powers of attorney, beneficiary planning, liquidity, tax exposure, and transfer priorities
Estate Planning Strategiesestate documents, powers of attorney, beneficiary planning, liquidity, tax exposure, and transfer priorities

Better First Instincts

If the case feels most like…Better first move
too many facts at oncesummarize client, goal, deadline, and dominant constraint before answering
missing or inconsistent informationclarify facts before selecting the final recommendation
retirement, estate, tax, or insurance conflictrank planning priorities before product implementation
portfolio or product fitconnect the product to risk capacity, objective, tax, liquidity, and monitoring

Common Traps

  • reading a case question like a standalone definition question
  • solving the easiest visible fact instead of the most important client issue
  • calculating before identifying why the calculation matters
  • choosing an implementation answer when the stronger answer is discovery, clarification, documentation, or monitoring

In this section

Revised on Friday, May 29, 2026
2. Family Law, Risk Management and Tax Planning
4. Investment Management and Asset Allocation