Could experience exemption hinder move to professionalism?

Speaking to ifa, Haydn van Nek, operations manager at Kelly Wealth, said he doesn’t necessarily agree with “the grandfathering for those advisers that have over 10 years’ experience”.

“I think in a way it waters down the professional requirements that younger advisers will have, and I think our clients are going to just come to expect that their advisers are qualified equally in a sense,” Mr van Nek said.

Earlier this month, Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones said that the government is preparing to begin consulting on the implementation of the experience pathway early next year.

“It would be my hope that we’ve got legislation in the first half of next year through to parliament so those things can be settled.”

Mr Jones first announced the experience pathway last year before releasing a comprehensive consultation paper in August, which also covered other areas of the professional qualification framework in financial advice.

At the time, Mr Jones explained that the government proposes removing the requirement for a tertiary qualification if an adviser has 10 years of experience, a clean record, and has passed the relevant exam.

News of the consultation was met with mixed reactions by industry stakeholders. The Association of Financial Advisers’ (AFA) CEO, Phil Anderson, told ifa at the time that he is pleased that the government is looking at how to better recognise prior learning and experience.

Meanwhile, in its submission to the government, the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) said that “unassessed experience alone is an insufficient foundation to meet the objectives of raising the minimum education requirements for professional financial advice providers and continuing to build consumer confidence in the profession”.

“Having surveyed its members to understand their views on the proposed modifications, 55 per cent of FPA members have already completed their required education and 35 per cent are on track to meet the existing education standards.

“Of those surveyed, 71 per cent of members meet the proposed experience pathway, while 55 per cent oppose the introduction of the proposed experience pathway, and 73 per cent would only support an experience pathway if there was a sunset introduced.”