Stephen Jones lays out ‘transition arrangement’ plans for advisers

Late last year, Stephen Jones said that if the Labor party won the upcoming federal election, the government would not require advisers with 10 years of experience and an “unblemished record” to complete a university degree to practice.

Currently, existing advisers with no degree must have an approved qualification by 1 January 2026.

Speaking at a webinar hosted by the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) on Monday, 2 May, Mr Jones said the Labor believes “there is a need for us to put in place a transition arrangement”.

“So halt the large-scaled exit of advisers who are otherwise competent and have a capacity to perform a job that is needed to be done,” Mr Jones explained.

“I’m thinking largely of people who are in the latter years of the profession — they’ve had no problems, they’ve provided high level competence of advice, often thought of as mentors to others within the industry…”

Mr Jones added that said Labor will also look closely at recognition of prior learning, which has been a specific area of criticism towards FASEA.

“There needs to be a robust process, but not so robust that it defeats the purpose,” he said.

“So a way of recognising their prior learnings and application process and a recognition process.”

Mr Jones continued: “It was always intended that there would be more than one particular qualification and more than one stream within the industry, but that at these early stages is not the way that it has been dealt with.

“We want to have a look at that… we’ll have a look at how we can ensure that we have appropriate qualifications for the profession moving forward.”

Mr Jones’ comments come after a recent appearance on the ifa Show podcast, where he gave a candid assessment of the financial services industry, labelling the poorly managed “tsunami of regulatory changes” as the main culprit for adviser exodus in Australia.

“There was a whole bunch of changes that were in play, there was a known timeline for it, not going back months or even years. Some of this stuff has been five, six years in the making, how a government could monumentally mishandle a bunch of this stuff is beyond belief, particularly a government that says it's a good economic manager."

Listen to the full podcast with Mr Jones here.

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.