Costlier degrees another impost for hard-pressed advisers
The lot of financial advisers and those looking to become financial advisers has been made even harder and costlier by the Federal Government’s moves to increase the price of some university degrees, with Commerce degrees increasing in cost by 28%.
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) raised this issue when giving evidence to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on economics and this was driven home by AFA policy and professionalism director, Phil Anderson, who said the increased cost was an unfair impost on advisers who were already under pressure.
He said that, what is more, the higher cost would make it even more difficult to address the growing exodus of advisers from the industry.
The AFA told the Parliamentary Committee that the number of financial advisers on the Financial Adviser Register had fallen by 6,000 in the last 18 months.
For its part, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) said that there had been just 51 new graduates entering the industry at the same time.
“There is a lack of new advisers, to replace those who are leaving, and the recently announced increase in university fees for Commerce-related degrees will further impact this problem,” the AFA said.
Anderson said the industry was facing an incredible shortage of advisers, and that relief would be sought from the Government with respect to the cost of adviser-related degrees.
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