Adviser exam fee jumps by more than 50%

Advisers who book to sit the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) financial adviser exam will now be charged a fee of $1,500, according to information recently published by the regulator.

ASIC confirmed the fee — which is up from $973 in 2022 — on its website after opening enrolments for the first exam sitting date of the year scheduled for 16 February.

As previously outlined by the regulator, enrolments for the February Cycle 20 sitting will close on 30 January. ASIC noted that late bookings will not be accepted under any circumstances.

The exam fee had jumped to $973 after ASIC took over responsibility for the adviser exam from the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) at the beginning of 2022. The fee previously stood at $540.

Four exam sittings have been scheduled by ASIC for this year. Enrolments for Exam Cycle 21 will open on 3 April and close on 21 April with a sitting date of 11 May.

Enrolments for Exam Cycle 22 will open on 3 July and close on 21 July with a sitting date of 10 August, while enrolments for Exam Cycle 23 will open on 2 October and close on 20 October with a sitting date of 9 November.

Only 57 per cent of the 282 candidates who took the most recent exam in November passed, ASIC revealed late last year. A total of 43 per cent of the candidates were resitting the exam for at least the second time, while the remainder were first timers.

To date, 20,309 individual candidates have taken the exam, with over 92 per cent of those receiving a pass. ASIC claimed that this demonstrates that “they have the skills to apply their knowledge of advice construction, ethics and legal requirements to the practical scenarios tested in the exam”.

Since 1 October 2022, all financial advisers have been required to pass the exam to continue to provide personal advice.