FPA urges FASEA to make it simpler, workable
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has presented the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) with an “enhanced” approach to financial planner education pathways which it says will forestall a major exit of advisers from the industry.
The FPA’s approach is outlined in a major submission filed with FASEA today and was developed out of a survey of FPA members conducted by the organisation during its national roadshow process over recent weeks.
The FPA submission kicks off on the note that its research “shows that the FASEA proposed education pathways will likely result in a large number of departures from the profession resulting in an advice gap that will be to the detriment of consumers”.
“A key responsibility in setting the new requirements must be to ensure the preservation of the financial planning profession for both those who have long served within it, and for the clients they serve,” it said.
The FPA said its proposed enhancements were aimed at achieving the Government’s stated policy intent of improving the minimum standards of financial advisers and eradicating four-day training courses but at the same time acknowledging the value of post education that is specific to the provision of financial advice.
A core element of the FPA submission is that the underlying educational elements of its Certified Financial Planner designation continue to have relevance and in prosecuting its argument, the organisation has provided diagrammatic evidence of the manner in which the existing FASEA approach overlooks the common educational scenarios applying to existing planners.
Commenting on the approach, FPA chief executive, Dante De Gori told Money Management he believed the FPA was being sensible and pragmatic.
He said that the FPA’s belief in a minimum degree qualification was non-negotiable but that the FASEA approach needed to be made workable in circumstances where the diverse educational backgrounds of working financial planners needed to be recognised.
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