Professional IQ College has reported a number of members have been seeking clarification on what will be acceptable to meet the Government’s new Code of Conduct for financial advisers.
Chief Executive, Rod Severn, says the difficulty is that the new Code is yet to be published. Currently, the initial draft Code (click here) published last year offers an indication of what the code will contain until it is finalised in the first quarter of 2019.
“Of particular interest are the competency requirements. The draft made it clear that the benchmark would be the NZ Certificate in Financial Services (NZCFS), level 5. Achieving Level 5 will be the simplest and easiest way to attain competency, however it also indicated there may be other ways of proving compliance,” said Severn.
“Unfortunately, it was not clear how these alternatives would work, particularly in the absence of a final version of the Code. Some other organisations are suggesting alternate options be taken, but they are at best guesses as to what might be acceptable.”
He added that although recognition of prior learning (RPL) has been put forward as a solution there is no guarantee at this stage that it will be acceptable.
“We know RPL alone will not achieve equivalence to the NZCFS, as additional study will be necessary for example, in regard to legislation and the regulatory environment,” Severn explained.
“Undertaking the RPL process gives no guarantee it will prove competence. Much depends on what learning has been undertaken and how recent it was. For RPL to succeed you need to provide detailed evidence of learning that bridges the gap between what you learnt in the past and what is in NZCFS, and then prove ongoing training in order to remain current. All this needs to cover the same subject matter as the qualification,” he said.
Severn said as an NZQA accredited training organisation, the College can help insurance advisers under the new Code avoid an expensive and uncertain outcome and is currently developing workshop solutions to simplify the qualification process.
This commentary follows Severn’s warning on commissions reported last week (see: Meddling With Sales Incentives Could Hurt New Zealanders…).