Reform bill has trainers jostling for position

Education providers are scrambling for position to exploit opportunities raised by the Financial Services Reform Bill.

Education providers are scrambling for position to exploit opportunities raised by the Financial Services Reform Bill.

The race for the hearts and minds of financial planners looking to upgrade skills and qualifications in the wake of Policy Statement 146 (PS146)is building pace with the entrance of two new players in recent weeks.

IntegraTec, one of the pioneers of education in the industry, has introduced a PS146 assessment test while Zurich Financial Services, in a joint venture with the University of Southern Queensland, has launched Australia’s first financial services online education course.

Both courses have the seal of approval from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) which, under PS146, keeps a register of compliant training for authorised representatives.

The raft of new courses being registered now numbers 15 and raises serious competitive issues for the dominant player in industry education, the Financial Planning Association.

IntegraTec managing director John Prowse says the host of new players in education are to meet the obligations of CLERP 6.

“As CLERP6 comes in and advisers have to meet the requirements, assessing adviser knowledge and competency will become an import part of a dealer’s arrangements,” he says.

“The FPA has a whole scheme of things it thinks you need to do to meet CLERP6 posted on its website. One of the things is what it calls, ‘Gap training’.”

Gap training involves re-educating planners in areas of DFP where dealers might feel their planners are lacking.

“The FPA might say anyone who did DFP in the last three years doesn’t need gap training, but anyone who did it before then probably will.”

In his opinion, this means the adviser and the dealer may unnecessarily commit to a significant amount of re-education.

IntegraTec also offers courses equivalent to DFP1 and DFP2.

“Our DFP5 (Superannuation) module is about to come onto the market and we’re currently writing a tax module,” Prowse says.

Also on the drawing board are enhancements to IntegraTec’s financial planning reference tool, IntegraText and ultimately, programs on the Net — something which Prowse says will be easier now that IntegraTec’s parent is Internet start-up B4BCo.

However, while IntegraTec is aiming to get on the net, Zurich Financial Services is already there. Zurich Learning On-Line, a co-production with the Univeristy of Southern Queensland, is a financial planning graduate certificate and diploma program.

IntegraTec and Zurich are but two of 14 education and training providers offering courses which make the ASIC register of compliant training for authorised representatives under PS146.

Break-out

Register of ASIC compliant training for authorised representatives

1. Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants (ASCPA)

2. Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA)

3. Australian Institute of Financial Studies

4. ANTA

5. Financial Planning Association (FPA)

6. IntegraTec

7. Investment Training College

8. Macquarie University

9. Monash Univeristy

10. NIBA

11. Open Learning Institute of TAFE, Brisbane

12. RMIT University

13. Securities Institute

14. University of Southern Queensland (in association with Zurich Online Services)