ASIC exam pass mark falls to 2022 lows
ASIC has released the pass mark for its August financial advice exam.
Some 231 people sat the exam, including 170 who were sitting the exam for the first time.
The pass mark was 62 per cent, representing 143 candidates.
This is the lowest percentage of candidates who have passed since November 2022 when only 57 per cent passed.
| Exam sitting | Pass mark |
| August 2024 | 62% |
| June 2024 | 70% |
| March 2024 | 70% |
| November 2023 | 66% |
| August 2023 | 73% |
| May 2023 | 63% |
| February 2023 | 67% |
| November 2022 | 57% |
ASIC said unsuccessful candidates will receive general feedback from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), who administer the exam, on areas where they underperformed.
To date, 21,430 individual candidates have sat the exam.
The next exam will be held on 7 November, and indicative dates for exams in 2025 are on 6 March, 5 June, 7 August, and 6 November.
Earlier this year, a financial adviser who had falsified his exam result saw a permanent ban from ASIC varied by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to seven years.
Todd Karamian was permanently banned in March 2023 for falsifying the result of his financial adviser exam from a fail to a pass. He sat the exam in November 2021, having already rescheduled it three times. This was the final sitting he could take in order to maintain his status as a relevant provider on 1 January 2022.
When he received his result, he detailed how he “sat in shock” and realised there were no further sittings available to retake the exam. He then manually changed it and continued to provide financial advice at licensee Bluepoint, where he had worked since 2003, to 11 clients when he was not a relevant provider.
In the AAT orders, Justice Kyrou said the decision to vary the ban had been taken based on their expert evidence about Karamian’s mental health, a prior good record over many years, and extensive favourable character evidence. He also outlined that the applicant was remorseful, took responsibility for the action, and there was a low risk of him doing the same action again.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Recommended for you
A quarter of advisers who commenced on the FAR within the last two years have already switched licensees or practices, adding validity to practice owners’ professional year (PY) concerns.
Integrated wealth and financial services group Rethink has launched a financial planning arm called Rethink Wealth to expand beyond property investing and into holistic wealth management.
While adviser numbers continue to slowly creep back up, the latest Wealth Data analysis reveals they would actually be in the green for the calendar year if it weren’t for so many losses in the limited advice space.
Iress has appointed a chief AI officer to spearhead the fintech’s strategic focus on AI, with chief executive Marcus Price describing how the technology opens the doors to a “new frontier for wealth advice”.
