New Details Emerge on Minimum Qualifications for Aussie Advisers

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More details regarding minimum educational qualifications for Australian advisers were released last week, contrasting sharply with the minimum standards that are proposed to be applied to Kiwi advisers.

In a presentation made at last weeks’ 2018 Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) Conference by Australia’s new Assistant Treasurer, The Hon Stuart Robert MP, the Minister announced that some key industry qualifications will be counted as credits against the future minimum education standards required for current financial advisers.

The draft Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services, released here last week, confirms that all New Zealand advisers will be required in future to hold the New Zealand Certificate in Financial Services (Level 5).

…existing advisers will need to comply with different minimum requirements

In Australia, however, all new adviser entrants from 1 January next year will be required to have completed an approved degree level qualification, while existing advisers will need to comply with different minimum requirements, depending on the qualifications they already hold.

Last week’s announcement by Minister Robert to Australian advisers confirmed which industry qualifications (including the global Certified Financial Planner designation) would be granted as credits against the future minimum qualifications for existing advisers; those minimum qualifications being an approved degree or an equivalent eight-subject Graduate Diploma course – offset for some advisers by their previous course work.

The Minister shared with delegates that he had agreed with Australia’s Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) the following:

  • Existing advisers with no degrees will not be required to undertake a bachelor’s degree but will be required to undertake eight subjects equivalent to a Graduate Diploma
  • Of those eight subjects, advisers who hold an existing Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning will receive two credits out of the eight subjects or credits required
  • An additional two subjects will be credited to existing advisers in recognition of the industry education course work conducted to attain the Financial Planning Association’s CFP qualification or the FChFP qualification provided by the AFA, provided these qualifications were obtained after a certain date

The Minister noted these additional credits for the FPA’s CFP and/or the AFA’s FChFP qualifications were in recognition of the hard work advisers and their Associations have already done in order to achieve those existing accreditations.

For what the Minister referred to as the ‘more wise advisers’ who had already completed advanced diplomas and industry accreditations, he confirmed they will have already met four of the eight mandatory units.

He said the four remaining units will relate to Ethics, the Corporations Act, Behavioural Finance and another subject of the adviser’s choosing.

The Minister also confirmed existing advisers holding a related degree would still be required to undertake three bridging courses, comprising:

  • Chapter Seven of the Australian Corporations Act
  • The new Code of Ethics
  • Behavioural Finance

The Minister said the remainder of FASEA’s requirements would be released in the coming weeks for final industry comment before the final legislation was introduced into Parliament.