Jones confirms experience pathway to hit Parliament

In a LinkedIn post, the Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, said: “I’m about to introduce legislation to implement our election commitment to allow experienced financial advisers to continue to provide advice and to improve the qualification framework for the advice industry”.

Mr Jones confirmed on Tuesday, while delivering the government’s response to the Quality of Advice Review (QAR), that the QAR announcement coincides with the planned introduction of legislation this week to implement the commitment to better recognise the experience of long‑serving advisers.

“This measure will assist experienced advisers with a clean disciplinary record who have passed the adviser exam to continue to provide high quality financial to Australians,” he said in a statement.

In late May, Mr Jones said that the bill will “recognise the qualification that comes with a decade of experience, while maintaining a clean record on the adviser register”.

“There will be no sunset clause on this qualification,” the minister said.

“Mostly, this bill is providing us with time to manage the transition while we clean up the settings on education qualifications to facilitate and improve pathways for entries into the system. I’ll be doing more work on a pathway for new entrants over the second half of the year,” he explained at the time.

“This is about taking measured pragmatic approaches that protect consumers, gives them access to qualified advice and works with industry, not against it.”

The government released the exposure draft bill in April to deliver its election commitment to recognise experienced financial advisers who pass the exam, have 10 years of experience, and a clean practice record.

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

However, surveys of the industry have suggested that advisers are divided on the government’s proposal.

Namely, a poll on the ifa website that asked advisers if they support the experience pathway as outlined in the government’s draft bill revealed that as many as 51.3 per cent do not, while 46.7 per cent do. Only 2.1 per cent of respondents were undecided.

The poll, which received 632 responses when it closed, is emblematic of the mixed response that the experience pathway has received.

In its submission to the government’s exposure draft bill, the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) said many advisers feel “aggrieved” by the timing of the announcement.

“A key factor influencing member sentiment about this proposal is the timing of its introduction,” the FAAA wrote.

“The transition period by which time existing planners/advisers must have completed an approved qualification, commenced more than four years ago on 1 January 2019. Many existing financial planners/advisers, whose qualifications were not recognised by FASEA, have undertaken study during this period.

“Hence, some members feel aggrieved that they have invested substantial time and money in completing qualifications that now might not be required.”

Flipping the results of the ifa poll, the FAAA also revealed in its submission that it had surveyed the draft legislation with 1,197 respondents, of which 50.9 per cent said they were supportive of the pathway, while 49.1 per cent said they were not in favour of the proposal as drafted.