Financialplanners will now be able to gain industry standard education without the need to complete the Financial Planning Association’s (FPA) Diploma of Financial Planning (DFP) or seek exemptions for other similar courses, after three groups were named as the first suppliers of courses on par with the DFP.
The groups are AMP Financial Planning, GWM Adviser Services (trading as ThreeSixty) and Kings International College, which have become the first education providers in Australia to register with the National Finance Industry Training Advisory Board (NFITAB).
Under the ongoing conditions of Policy Statement 146 (PS 146), education providers on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) National Training Register must reapply for accreditation by December 31 to ensure courses are compliant with national standards.
NFITAB national projects manager Dean Sanders says it has been given the authority by ASIC to regulate education and training, and has established a national benchmark titled FNB50802 Diploma in Financial Services (Financial Planning).
Sanders says all courses currently on offer must meet with the DFS (FP) standard by the end of the year.
“The net affect of this will be an exciting increase in competition in the area of financial services training,” he says.
Peter Carblis, principal of the Australian College of Financial Services, whose courses are operating under the auspices of Kings International College, says the news that these groups are now able to supply courses creates an open playing field.
“It removes the proprietary nature that education has been under for some time and is a huge win for educators, as well as for financial planners,” he says.
The FPA has for some time dominated the education space with its DFP program but will also have to reapply for accreditation for the program and is moving to become a registered training organisation (RTO). Failure to do so would mean it would be unable to continue to offer the DFP program.
The impact of the standards also means the FPA, like all education providers, will be forced to recognise all other courses that meet the DFS level without using the current exemption systems.
