ASIC has delayed the first financial adviser exam date of 2024 to allow more time for impending changes to the exam’s delivery and accessibility.
The corporate regulator has announced the next exam date will be held on 26 March 2024. Previously, the first exam date for 2024 was 15 February.
“To allow sufficient time to implement required changes to the exam and ensure all candidates are held to the same standard, the date of the next exam has been revised,” ASIC stated.
Last week on 14 December, the government released draft legislation under its commitment to ensure the financial adviser exam remains a pillar of the financial adviser professional standards.
The draft legislation includes amendments that will:
- Remove the short answer questions from the exam and increase the number of multiple-choice questions.
- Remove the requirement that only provisional relevant providers and existing advisers can sit the exam.
These amendments concern principles 2 and 5 of the exam, as outlined in the Corporations Determination 2021.
The draft explanatory statement sets out that exams based on multiple choice questions “create efficiencies” by enabling computer marking to replace manual marking.
“This reduces the cost of administering exams and improves response times for exam candidates to receive their results.”
Regarding changes to principle 5, the explanatory material says that “current exam eligibility criteria which restricts access to the exam based on the person having already met the qualifications standard is causing unnecessary delays for new entrants seeking to enter the profession”.
“Removing this restriction provides flexibility for candidates to sit the exam at an appropriate time. For example, potential new entrants could sit the exam while they are completing their studies.
ASIC also recently revealed the results from the 23rd Financial Advisers Exam cycle held in November.
Out of the 219 people who sat the exam, 145 (or 66 per cent) passed the exam.
The last exam cycle saw the highest pass mark of 2023, with 150 (73 per cent) passing out of the 205 who sat the exam.
In November, 154 people (or 70 per cent) completed the exam for the first time.
The corporate regulator revealed that 20,875 individual candidates have sat the exam to date and more than 19,310 (or 92 per cent) have successfully passed.
Will the proposed “qualified advisers” (salespeople) need to do the exam, or only the real qualified advisers?