Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) deputy chairman, Peter Kell has agreed there is value in recognition of past qualifications and experience under the new Financial Advisers Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) regime.
Answering questions before the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, Kell made clear that FASEA would be the final arbiter of the issue but agreed with Queensland Liberal member, Bert Van Manen, that adviser experience was an issue.
Van Manen said that one of the concerns of long-time advisers, particularly those who had gone through the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and got a Certified Financial Planning (CFP) designation was that it would not be recognised “even though some of these people have been in the industry 30 or 40 years”.
Van Manen said one of his concerns was that it was all well and good having qualifications “but to me, experience is still extremely important. You need to know how to apply those qualifications practically, on a day to day basis, to assist clients”.
Kell pointed out that the issues raised by Van Manen were still up for consultation via FASEA.
“I think the issues you’ve pointed to are genuine issues that they’re grappling with and consulting on at the moment,” the ASIC deputy chairman said. “I agree with you on the experience requirement. I think one of the beneficial features of the new requirements is supervision for new advisers; a professional year—in other words, a recognition that experience needs to also be built into the overall set of qualifications that are required.”
Kell said ASIC would be participating in the consultation, but “we’re not the ones who, ultimately, will set those standards; that’s FASEA”.
“But I think that the issue you’ve pointed to is a real one,” he said.
