How to Get ACII: Credits, Units, Time and the Fastest Route From Cert CII

ACII is the member designation for the CII Level 6 Advanced Diploma in Insurance. To get it you need at least 290 CII credits: 150 or more at Advanced Diploma level, a further 55 at Diploma level or above, and the other 85 from any level, including units M05 Insurance law, M92 or 530, and one of 820, 930 or 960. Your Cert CII and Dip CII credits count towards the 290, and to use the letters ACII you also need to be a CII member. On the CII’s own unit study hours, the fewest-hours route we found from a 45-credit Cert CII is 1,080 hours of further study, and from the 120-credit Dip CII in our second worked example it is 780 hours. This guide sets out the credit maths, the required units, the time and the CII cost, with a planner for your own route. ProSyllabus is an independent study site. It is not affiliated with the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), and nothing here is official. Every credit, fee and study-time figure below is taken from the CII’s own pages and documents, read on 5 and 6 November 2026.

CII Advanced Diploma in Insurance page and qualification specification (March 2026), read 6 November 2026.

Try three free IF1 practice questions before you plan your route:

The CII’s 2027 qualifications brochure lists ACII as the member designation for the Advanced Diploma in Insurance, an RQF Level 6 qualification. The qualification specification describes Level 6 study as “approximately undergraduate final year level”. The CII’s Associate membership level is for individuals holding the Advanced Diploma in Insurance; on 5 November 2026 it cost £221 a year plus a £37 admission fee. The brochure says members can use their designation.

ACII is also the step before Chartered status. The Advanced Diploma page says that from the Advanced Diploma you can apply for Chartered status, “subject to having five years’ experience, not necessarily post-qualification”, and names four Chartered insurance titles: Chartered Insurer, Chartered Insurance Broker, Chartered Insurance Practitioner and Chartered Insurance Risk Manager. The brochure’s list of Chartered designations also includes Chartered Insurance Underwriting Agent. After the Advanced Diploma you can also work towards Fellowship (FCII), which is not conditional on Chartered status: the brochure lists completing the Advanced Diploma, passing the Business Ethics programme, a major achievement, three years’ continuing professional development and a statement of personal development.

Do not confuse ACII with APFS. APFS is the designation for the CII’s Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning, the adviser route through units such as AF5. It also needs 290 credits but has different required units, and this guide does not cover it.

The three CII insurance qualifications stack: credits from each count towards the next. The CII recommends completing the Certificate before the Diploma, and the Diploma, or an equivalent, before the Advanced Diploma, although the specification says there are no formal entry requirements.

For the Certificate itself (the units, the 40-credit rule and what it costs), see our Cert CII guide.

The Advanced Diploma page states the rule in one sentence: “The Advanced Diploma requires a minimum of 290 CII credits for successful completion, with at least 150 at Advanced Diploma level, and a further 55 at Diploma level or above. The remaining 85 credits can come from any units within the insurance framework.” It then names three requirements that contribute to completion.

Three points in our reading of the rule. First, Advanced Diploma credits beyond the first 150 can make up the further 55 and then the remaining 85 (each credit counts once), which is why 993 can shorten a route. Second, at most 85 Certificate-level credits can count, because 150 + 55 = 205 must come from Diploma level or above. Third, the CII says that “there is no prescribed order in which units must be taken, but it is strongly recommended that you sit the required core unit(s) first”. The unit pages for M05 and M92 assume knowledge of IF1 or an equivalent; the 530 page assumes knowledge typically covered in IF1 or M92, or equivalent examinations.

If you hold older or withdrawn units, the page warns that “certain combinations of current and withdrawn units will result in only one award of CII credits”, and asks you to check with CII Customer Service. 991 London market insurance specialisation and 994 Insurance market specialisation have been withdrawn from sale. You can also ask the CII about recognition of prior learning, and request a Learning Statement, which the brochure says is free and records your units and credits as you achieve them.

Every Advanced Diploma unit on sale is assessed by three coursework assignments. The unit pages give a 50% pass mark and a 12-month enrolment with assignments due at 3, 6 and 9 months; the assignments are up to 3,200 words (4,200 for 993).

The Diploma units on sale are mixed assessment: a coursework assignment within the first 6 months of enrolment (the unit pages say it must be submitted by then, the brochure says passed; 60% pass mark) and a multiple-choice exam passed within 18 months (standard pass mark 65%). M05’s exam is 60 minutes with 50 questions.

The unit pages give average pass rates by unit type rather than by unit: 91.2% for those completing Diploma mixed assessment units in full, and 97.0% for those completing Advanced Diploma coursework units in full. For coursework, the Advanced Diploma page says results come 63 calendar days after you submit. The specification adds that you may be asked to an authenticity interview to talk through an assignment; it does not change your mark.

“Fastest” here means the fewest study hours, using the hours the CII gives on each unit page. The route finder in the planner below tries every combination of the units on sale. Two worked examples:

IF1 is where most routes to ACII begin. Try three free IF1 practice questions:

The CII gives a notional Total Qualification Time of 660 hours, which “represents the time a student might typically take to upgrade their CII Level 4 Diploma in Insurance to the CII Level 6 Advanced Diploma in Insurance by the shortest combination of units”, rising to about 850 hours depending on the units chosen, plus study time for any additional completion requirement units, such as M05, that you have not already passed. The brochure recommends 120 to 180 hours per Advanced Diploma unit.

The enrolment windows set the pace. Each Advanced Diploma unit runs for 12 months with assignments due at 3, 6 and 9 months, so two can overlap if you can write two assignments in the same quarter. Each Diploma unit allows 6 months for the coursework and 18 months for the exam. Here is one way to fit worked example 1 into three years, required units first:

The CII sells each unit separately. On 6 November 2026 a digital Enrolment only (study text and assessment) cost £710 for most Advanced Diploma units (£572 for members), £675 for 960 (£544), £1,859 for 993 (£1,534), and £644 for each Diploma unit (£518). So the routes above cost:

The qualification specification (March 2026) publishes the CII’s standardised fees for UK non-members on a typical route with digital-only options: for the Advanced Diploma units, a Standard Qualification Fee of £1,912 for the assessments and a Package Fee of £928 for the learning materials, assuming you already hold the Diploma; and, for the additional completion requirements, a Standard Qualification Fee of £2,714 and a Package Fee of £2,008. The specification says that members get substantial discounts, shown on each unit shop page, and that costs vary by route.

IF1 Insurance, legal and regulatory is the core of the Certificate, the unit pages for M05 and M92 assume knowledge of IF1 or an equivalent, and the 530 page assumes knowledge typically covered in IF1 or M92, or equivalent examinations. If you are starting from scratch, IF1 is the usual place for your 290 credits to begin: 15 credits, a two-hour exam of 100 multiple-choice questions, standard pass mark 70%. Our IF1 exam guide covers the syllabus, and our IF1 practice questions work through three in detail.

The free questions come from the ProSyllabus CII IF1 practice test: independent practice questions, not CII specimen or exam questions.

Try three free IF1 practice questions now: