FPA places submission to Treasury on financial adviser education standard

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In its submission to Treasury on the proposal paper in relation to financial adviser education standards, the FPA has reiterated its view that the competence obtained through experience should be better recognised in the education standards and has recommended that the Government should not implement an experience exemption to the education framework.

While the FPA shares the Government’s goal of making financial advice more affordable and accessible to Australian consumers, FPA believes that simply providing an experience pathway alone is not going to achieve a reduction in the cost to produce advice.

However, if the Government does proceed with an experience pathway as proposed, the FPA recommends the following requirements be met:

• 10 years of relevant licensed experience between 1 January 2004 and 1 January 2019
• a clean record
• a statutory declaration
• either membership of a professional association or the completion of an approved ethics course
• a 10 year sunset period.

The FPA believes unassessed experience alone is an insufficient foundation to meet the objectives of raising the minimum education requirements for professional financial advice providers and continuing to build consumer confidence in the profession.

Having surveyed its members to understand their views on the proposed modifications, 55 per cent of FPA members have already completed their required education and 35 per cent are on track to meet the existing education standards. Of those surveyed, 71 per cent of members meet the proposed experience pathway while 55 per cent of oppose the introduction of the proposed experience pathway and 73 per cent would only support an experience pathway if there was a sunset introduced.

For more details on the submission visit https://faaa.au/blog/contributors/fpa-professional-standards-submission/