FPEC announces winners of the 2018 Financial Planning Academic Research Grants

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The Financial Planning Education Council (FPEC) has announced Western Sydney University (WSU) and Griffith University as the two winners of the 2018 FPEC Academic Research Grants.

The FPEC Academic Research Grants are sponsored by the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) and NAB, and recognise those that have demonstrated a commitment to encouraging the development of financial planning as an academic discipline in its own right.

The 2018 grant recipients are:

• Dr Michelle Cull at Western Sydney University for the project titled “Motivating factors for choosing a career in the financial planning profession”. The study attempts to address the research gap on the motivating factors for choosing financial planning as a career, and assist in the promotion of the profession and aid the retention of existing advisers.
• Dr Kirsten MacDonald and Dr Tracey West at Griffith University for the project titled “Understanding client perceptions of financial adviser education in Australia”. The project investigates how financial adviser education, including professional designations and academic qualifications, impacts the choice of a financial adviser in Australia. It also investigates the characteristics of clients who value credentialed and degree qualified advisers, and client perceptions of the rigour and quality concerning designations and qualifications.

Each grant recipient will receive $5,000 to support research that helps to further grow relationships between the tertiary sector and the financial planning profession.

Dante De Gori CFP^®, FPA CEO, said: “We congratulate WSU and Griffith University on their outstanding work. Academic research continues to be valuable to the profession, with many projects resulting in papers being published in the Financial Planning Research Journal.”

For more detail on the FPEC Research Grants Scheme, please refer to:

https://faaa.au/education/financial-planning-education-council-fpec/