ASIC outlines exams plans for 2022

In a parliamentary joint committee on Friday (26 November), commissioner Danielle Press said ASIC is currently gearing up for its new responsibilities in support of the recently passed Better Advice Bill – which will see FASEA wound up and responsibilities passed to ASIC – and its plans for exams.

“With respect to the exam, which is also one that’s of great interest to the financial planning community, we are working with [Australian Council for Education Research] ACER to sign a new contract,” Ms Press said.

“As soon as that contract is signed, which is likely to be next week or the week after, we will be putting out to industry firstly when the exams will be…

“We are looking at having probably four exam sittings in 2022 and for those people that qualify for the extension to 30 September to pass the exam, they’ll have three opportunities to do so.”

With the legislation set to commence from 1 January 2022, Ms Press said clarity around how panels will be convened and how matters will be dealt with by the single disciplinary body will be shared with industry “very early next year”.

Requirements around the FASEA exam have been hotly debated in recent months, with head of advice strategy at MetLife Australia, Dr Jeffrey Scott, recently slamming it as “ridiculous”.

Speaking at the ifa’s inaugural Future Forum this month, Dr Scott said: “Asking advisers who have been in the industry for years to sit a three-hour university-style examination, when they haven’t sat an exam since high school, I think is ridiculous.

“Recognition of prior learning from an education point of view says we should take into consideration what the person has done previously and if they have no problems with their ASIC stuff and they’ve kept up with their CPD points, they’re doing all their education, then why do they have to sit the exam as well?”

Last month, FASEA revealed the pass rate among advisers listed on ASIC’s Financial Adviser Register (FAR) stood at 76 per cent at the end of September, meaning 14,630 advisers on the FAR were successful in overcoming the FASEA hurdle.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.