FPA calls for regulatory control of use of term 'financial planner'
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) is calling for tighter regulation of the use of the term ‘financial planner’ to distinguish it from the term ‘financial product adviser’.
Chief executive Jo-Anne Bloch has made the call in a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Inquiry into Agribusiness Managed Investment Schemes.
She said the term ‘financial product adviser’, which encompasses risk advisers, brokers, financial planners, and in fact, any financial intermediary, was a “significant concern” for the FPA.
The term allows “too many underqualified professionals providing clients with ‘financial advice’ under the guise of being a financial adviser”.
“Financial planning is about wealth creation and protection and it is akin to a long-term coaching relationship (for clients).
“The skill set is specific and broad, and it is not evident amongst many of the thousands of (underqualified) people out there who call themselves ‘financial advisers’, she said.
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