Industry backs higher education standards

The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has received overwhelming support for lifting education standards, according to FPA acting chief Deen Sanders.

The FPA released a whitepaper titled ‘Education expectations for professional financial planners’ late last year. It recommended that by 2015 all new entrants who wanted to become financial planners have, as a minimum, a tertiary qualification in financial planning.

It also said they should undertake one year’s supervised work before becoming qualified financial planners.

Consultation on the whitepaper has closed and Sanders said the FPA board would now start determining how to take the debate forward.

“At this stage, no decision has been reached about how we will work with the recommendations, but we anticipate being able to announce directions in the first part of the financial year,” Sanders said.

The association was initially concerned about individuals being able to present themselves as qualified financial planners in “as little as several days, simply by completing a diploma level course and passing a short open book exam”.

The Ripoll Report released in November shared the FPA’s concerns about the minimum level of education. In responding to the Ripoll Report, the Government has announced its intention to introduce an Expert Advisory Panel to respond to the professional standards of financial advisers, among other issues.

“We are confident that between these initiatives we will arrive at a renewed approach to education for financial planners,” Sanders said.

“We want to work with ASIC, the Government and the profession to develop an objective assessment mechanism that instils confidence in financial planner entry competence.”