The Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) will provide assistance to planners facing both the exam and Code of Ethics, but hasn’t confirmed how long before the body’s professionalisation regime kicks in in full force this help will come.
Speaking at the SMSF Association National Conference yesterday, the Authority’s chief executive, Stephen Glenfield, was characteristically tight-lipped on the details of when and what information would be released to advisers.
He said FASEA was “working hard” to get together practice exams and reading lists to assist planners sitting the new compulsory exam and was also “working to have the exam ready to sit by June this year”. The guidance materials would be available “well in advance” to allow adequate preparation time, but Glenfield did not reveal when that would be.
The CEO, who received a lukewarm welcome from the room, also said that that similar guidance would be provided about the Code of Ethics component of the regime, which he characterised as “a code for the individual adviser to recognise the ethical world they should be operating within”.
The guidance would be released in the coming few weeks and would respond to many of the questions FASEA had received from stakeholder on the Code, relating them back to practical scenarios.
On the hotly-debated issue of recognition of prior learning, Glenfield reaffirmed that FASEA was currently working with education providers on accrediting existing or older courses.
He encouraged advisers to keep looking at the approved prior learning lists and contact FASEA if they felt some applicable study they had completed was missing however, as some had been missed as providers had not put them forward.
Finally, as the Authority seeks to “operationalise” its standards, Glenfield encouraged stakeholders to continue to provide considered feedback to the organisation as it enters the “implementation phase”.
