Stephen Jones calls for industry feedback as consultation on adviser education standards opens

Financial services Minister, Stephen Jones, said the Albanese government is committed to improving the professional qualification framework in financial advice after consultation on the adviser education standards opened this week.

Originally announced earlier this month, Mr Jones said the government would look at options to "streamline the education requirements for financial advisers" and addressed the 30 September deadline for existing advisers to pass the exam and continue to provide financial advice, saying that following the deadline, he will ask Treasury to explore how the exam can be improved, such as reducing the number of questions.

This week, Mr Jones said the government wants to attract talent back into the advice industry.

"By treating seasoned, respected advisers like undergraduates, the previous Coalition Government drove much-needed experience out of the industry without addressing quality of advice standards," Mr Jones said.

"The consultation paper released today proposes removing the requirement for a tertiary qualification if an adviser has 10 years’ experience, a clean record, and has passed the relevant exam.

"It also proposes several options for amending current education requirements on new industry entrants."

News of the consultation was met with mixed reaction by industry stakeholders following its announcement just weeks ago. The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) CEO Phil Anderson welcomed the news, telling ifa he is pleased that the government is looking at how to better recognise prior learning and experience, and how additional pathways can be made available for new industry entrants.

"There are a large number of advisers who are very anxious, having sat the financial adviser exam in recent weeks and awaiting their results," Mr Anderson said.

"The minister has been clear in his media release that the deadline for passing the exam remains 30 September 2022, and impacted advisers will need to plan on this basis."

Meanwhile, the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals’ (AIOFP) executive director, Peter Johnston, also welcomed the news. However, he added that the industry group is "naturally disappointed" that Mr Jones did not defer the exam until after the 1 October "cliff" date to restructure it.

"We were hoping for a 12-month deferral of the exam, a removal of the ambiguous ethics content, and inclusion of questions around competency of their advice specialty," Mr Johnston told ifa.

"To be fair, the minister did not specifically promise any exam changes, but we will however continue with our lobbying activities until October 1st in hope of a change of mind."

The Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association (SIAA) also backed the move after CEO Judith Fox slammed the current standards as "shameful".

"The education standards required by recent legislation focused on financial planning qualifications and did not take into proper account the decades of qualifications and CPD stockbrokers and investment advisers had undertaken," Ms Fox told ifa.

"Many in our industry also have graduate and postgraduate qualifications suitable to working in equity markets, yet these were not considered approved degrees."

Submissions are now open and will close on 16 September 2022.

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.