The §34f/§34h Sachkundeprüfung is the exam behind two related German licences: the Finanzanlagenvermittler permit under § 34f of the Gewerbeordnung and the Honorar-Finanzanlagenberater permit under § 34h, both authorising advice on and distribution of investment products such as fund shares and closed-end funds. One regulation, the Finanzanlagenvermittlungsverordnung (FinVermV), governs the exam behind both. Prep guides often describe this exam as one whose rules vary by chamber. The regulation is more specific than that, and the pass mark in particular is fixed nationwide.
What score do you need to pass?
At least 50 percent in each examined area, not 50 percent overall. § 3 Absatz 7 puts it directly: the written part is passed when the candidate reaches “in den in Absatz 2 Satz 4 Nummer 1 bis 3 genannten und geprüften Bereichen jeweils mindestens 50 Prozent der erreichbaren Punkte.” The word doing the work is jeweils, in each one. A strong score in open-ended funds does not carry a weak one in Vermögensanlagen.
Two further details sit in the same Absatz. Geprüften limits the rule to the areas actually examined, which matters for the restricted exam described below. And the practical part has its own 50 percent threshold, with § 3 Absatz 7 Satz 2 requiring both parts to be passed before the exam as a whole counts as passed.
How many questions are on the §34f/§34h exam?
There is no fixed nationwide question count, and no time limit either. FinVermV states neither. § 3 Absatz 9 leaves the details of the exam procedure to the Industrie- und Handelskammer, which sets them by its own Satzung, and § 3 Absatz 8 has the chamber issue the certificate.
It is worth being precise about how far that reaches, because this is where prep guides overshoot. The chambers set procedure. They do not set the pass mark, which is § 3 Absatz 7, and they do not choose the written questions: § 3 Absatz 3 places that with a bundesweit einheitlich tätiger Aufgabenauswahlausschuss, a nationwide task-selection committee of seven members and seven deputies, drawn from intermediaries, product providers, the chambers, and consumer organisations. So a candidate in Hamburg and a candidate in Munich sit tasks chosen by the same body against the same threshold.
What subject areas are tested?
Two different structures overlap here, and conflating them is the usual source of confusion.
The content of the written part follows from § 3 Absatz 2 Satz 1, which puts the subject areas of § 1 Absatz 1 Nummer 1 into writing. In Anlage 1 those are four chapters:
- Kenntnisse für Beratung und Vertrieb von Finanzanlageprodukten: economic foundations, financial instruments and categories of investment, sustainability criteria, general contract law and legal capacity, and the regulatory framework under the Wertpapierhandelsgesetz, the FinVermV itself, the Kreditwesengesetz, the Geldwäschegesetz, intermediary law, competition law, and consumer protection.
- Offene Investmentvermögen (open-ended funds, defined by § 1 Absatz 4 of the Kapitalanlagegesetzbuch): markets, how the funds work, fund types from money-market funds to ETFs, opportunities and risks, the KAGB itself, tax treatment, custody accounts, and state-subsidised savings schemes.
- Geschlossene Investmentvermögen (closed-ended funds, § 1 Absatz 5 KAGB): structure and contractual relationships, real-estate, media, shipping, private-equity and infrastructure funds, opportunities and risks, and the relevant company and tax law.
- Vermögensanlagen (§ 1 Absatz 2 of the Vermögensanlagengesetz): profit-participation rights, silent partnerships, registered bonds and cooperative shares, with the Vermögensanlagengesetz and the company and tax law behind them.
Scoring is organised over three areas, not four. § 3 Absatz 2 Satz 4 names the Bereiche that must be examined in writing, and they are the three product categories only: open-ended funds, closed-ended funds, and Vermögensanlagen. The 50 percent rule in Absatz 7 attaches to those three. The first chapter is examined as part of the written paper but is not a separate scoring area, and § 3 Absatz 2 Satz 2 requires the subject areas to be tested “in einem ausgewogenen Verhältnis zueinander,” in balance with one another.
A fifth Anlage 1 chapter, Kundenberatung, is not in the written exam at all. § 1 Absatz 1 Nummer 2 and § 3 Absatz 4 put it in the practical part.
Can the exam be limited to one category?
Yes. § 3 Absatz 2 Satz 5 lets a candidate apply to restrict the written part to a single category of Finanzanlagen from Satz 4 Nummer 1, 2, or 3, and Satz 6 ties the choice to the licence actually applied for under § 34f Absatz 1 Satz 1 Nummer 1, 2, or 3 of the Gewerbeordnung.
One rule inside that catches people out. Satz 7: a Nummer 3 licence, for Vermögensanlagen, additionally requires the Nummer 2 area, closed-ended funds. Applying for the narrowest-looking category does not produce the narrowest exam.
The restriction is what geprüften in Absatz 7 refers to: a restricted candidate needs 50 percent in each area they actually sat, and § 3 Absatz 8 Satz 2 requires the certificate to state which of the Nummer 1 to 3 areas the written part covered.
Is there a practical part too?
Yes, and the written part gates it. § 3 Absatz 1 Satz 2 makes passing the written part a precondition for sitting the practical one. § 3 Absatz 4 then sets the practical part as a simulated client-advice conversation covering the Kundenberatung of § 1 Absatz 1 Nummer 2, examining one candidate at a time, where the candidate has to show they can develop and offer solutions that suit the client. It is not a multiple-choice format, and it carries its own 50 percent threshold under Absatz 7.
Can you study from real past questions?
No, and the regulation says so rather than the market merely lacking them. § 3 Absatz 3 closes with “Die Prüfungsaufgaben werden nach der Prüfung nicht veröffentlicht; sie stehen den Prüflingen nur während der Prüfungen zur Verfügung”: the tasks are not published after the exam and are available to candidates only during it. Any legitimate prep material therefore has to be built independently from FinVermV and the statutes its Anlage 1 draws on, among them the KAGB and the WpHG, rather than from real chamber papers.
Every fact above comes directly from the Finanzanlagenvermittlungsverordnung, freely available at gesetze-im-internet.de, an official work in the public domain under § 5 Absatz 1 UrhG. RiverMap Learning’s §34f/§34h practice app drills the written-exam subject areas with original questions citing the specific provision behind each answer, including whichever single category a restricted candidate needs.