The Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) is missing a golden opportunity to examine advisers in specific areas in which they are authorised to provide advice, according to Deakin University.
In a submission filed with FASEA, the Deakin Business School said it appeared that the authority was missing “a golden opportunity to examine advisers in specific areas that they are authorised to provide advice to retail clients (for example, derivatives, insurance et cetera)”.
It said that, as such, it was recommending that consideration be given to allowing advisers to take additional or ‘elective’ questions – perhaps via a separate sitting to a generic examine – in areas relevant to their authority.
The submission pointed out that a survey of practicing financial advisers undertaken in 2015 had signalled that planners placed a high degree of emphasis on degree qualifications in specialised knowledge areas such as Introductory/Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning, Financial Plan Construction, Estate Planning and Life Insurance.
The Deakin Business School submission urged FASEA to consider such areas to be incorporated into the final examination structure.
