Will experience pathway help stem adviser exits?
The extension of the experience pathway by two extra years means another 424 advisers could be eligible.
A consultation on the experience pathway was launched this week and part of this saw the 10-year experience term extended from 2019 to 2021.
Last week, Wealth Data wrote that there were 3,166 advisers on the Financial Advisers Register (FAR) who had commenced prior to 1 January 2009 who lacked an approved degree.
Basing numbers on advisers who had commenced prior to 1 January 2011, this increased the total from 3,166 to 3,590, an increase of 424 advisers.
Wealth Data founder, Colin Williams, added: “Moreover, advisers can write to the minister and ask for their qualifications to be reviewed, as many very good qualifications were not approved for so-called 'technical' reasons.
“This approach recognises degrees that were not recognised under the previous FASEA regime due to missing a small 'advice' component and/or deemed too old. This will be seen by most as a very positive and refreshing approach.”
Meanwhile, there had been 15 advisers departing in the week to 20 April including a double-digit number from Infocus.
Some 22 licensee owners had net gains of 27 advisers while 21 had net losses of 43 advisers. Four new licensees commenced and two ceased.
Breaking it down by company, Infocus saw 10 departures after having had a relatively stable period. Three of these advisers had already been appointed elsewhere.
Wealth Data noted that one of the new licensees that had commenced this week included advisers from Infocus.
Insignia was down by eight and Wealth Data noted it was approaching 1,000 advisers, down from more than 2,000 in January 2020.
Sequoia Group, Fortnum and AAN Wealth were all up by two advisers and 17 licensee owners were up by one including Diverger, Centrepoint, Capstone and AMP Group.
Williams said: “The number of advisers active this week who were appointed or resigned was 69. It was a busy week for some licensees with significant adviser movements, and we expect many of the advisers who resigned to reappear in the coming weeks”.
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Yes, Labor's changes will help retain experienced advisers, and it could bring a return of other older advisers. However, standardising the Annual Fee Renewal Consent forms with all other nations (ie eliminating annual forms with the option to Opt out) will help a lot as well. Until then, over 1 million Australians will continue to languish as unserviced orphans on investment platforms.
My degrees are: (1) BEc 1983, (2) MBA 1999, (3) Master of Finance 2004 (4) Master of Laws in Corporate & Financial Law 2011. (5) I am at the tail end of PhD in International Financial Law. As far as I am aware, none of above degrees qualify. On 5th March, I have been 40 years in the financial planning profession experience. The new requirements ignore retrospectivity. In 1985, I sat my first exam for Certificate in Financial Planning. The essential requirement is to pass the FASEA exam, which I did in June 2020 with 8 minutes to spare at the end. The best financial planners have come from teachers and nurses, but the vertical silo academia biased academics do not understand clients rely more on relationship to adviser who understands them as people that forms trust in the functional performance of fiduciary obligations in Predictive Trust (reference: "Knowledge on Trust" Chapter 6, 'The Assurance Theory' by Paul Falkner https://global.oup.com/academic/product/knowledge-on-trust-9780198709336?cc=us&lang=en& ".
Reducing the out of control Frydenberg imposed taxes on the industry , ASIC levy and compensation scheme of last resort , will help stem losses.
Reducing education standards will simply perpetuate distrust in the industry.