In a statement, Mentor Education founder and principal Mark Sinclair said the company has recorded “a significant increase in enrolments” for diploma, advanced diploma, master and bachelor courses.
“Contrary to many of the headlines proclaiming a mass exodus of planners, there is solid core of role model planners determined to capitalise on the opportunities in the advice era and are positioning themselves through academic endeavour and personal/professional development,” he said.
Mr Sinclair added that the qualification courses most popular with advisers were those “with an emphasis on building productivity and operational efficiency needed by the next generation of advice practices”.
“Our interaction with forward focused planners has confirmed that they’re determined to be faster to respond to opportunities, profitable, streamlined and attuned to client needs,” he said.
“The long-term benefits will be measured in significantly heightened levels of consumer trust and confidence and the standing of financial planners as highly respected professional practitioners.”
The comments follow an ifa straw poll, which found that 75 per cent of advisers plan to leave the industry by 2024, when the new adviser education standards come into effect.
What we all seem to be forgetting here is that there has been talk of updating education for quite a while. Having done the DFP about 5 years ago, I was undecided whether to do the ADFP or just go right to the Masters. I decided to do the Masters and finished last year.
I was 95% sure when I started it that something like what has happened would come about, so I wanted to future proof myself within the industry. My Masters qualifies under FPEC/FPA as I made SURE I did it through a reputable university and NOT an RTO provider.
Yes, we will all probably be studying for the rest of our lives in one way or another, and yes, we now must meet professional standards, but accountants have had to do this for a lot longer than we have.
Maybe rather than take the negative attitude of “everyone is out to get us, this is a huge conspiracy between FASEA/FPA/Academia”, we should look at education as a chance to refresh our knowledge – something that an adviser who is affected by this, with many, many years of experience said to me the other day.
And queue the next negative comment…but it costs so much! Yes, I spent $30,000 on my Masters. BUT, I am looking at it positively as being the best money I ever spent -you know why? In that time, I networked and met people in the industry I would otherwise not have met, and have a chance to help others in the industry, even if all I am doing is listening to their problems.
ALSO, I will be spending more money on the CFP program, and bridging gaps like SMSF, Margin Lending, Mortgage Broking etc which I will need if I want to be a good adviser.
Starting your education in the consultation period is not a waste of time and money, it is EDUCATION, which is terribly important – especially to a service economy such as ours.
Excellant. You should do a Masters in Financial Planning every 10 years. Given you’ve finished just recently, by 2024 comes around your degree will be at least 6 years old so I would go out and re-enroll again today. Have you enrolled yet?
I’m currently trying to get the Minister to see the sense in that viewpoint. It would be great if you could write a letter of support saying it should be made compulsory to do a Masters in Financial Planning every 10 years regardless of any prior Masters or Degree studies being studied. We really need to lift education standards and doing a Masters Degree every 10 years should be viewed beneficial from a networking perspective and a way to future proof ourselves, like you mentioned. We should all look at it from that perspective and continual education like you said is good for us all and we should just get over it.
Most of the anger towards FASEA at the moment is coming from people who took very similar steps to you…much earlier in their career. Those people made similar efforts and sacrifices because it was the professional thing to do, rather than because there was compulsion on the horizon. They are now outraged at being forced to do it all again.
I bet you won’t be so sanctimonious if you are forced to repeat all your recent education in another 10 years, like so many others are now. And why, if you really are such a big believer in education, have you delayed getting anything beyond a DFP for at least 5 years? I pity those clients who received your undereducated advice during that time.
You sound as if you may be a youngish adviser? and good on you for completing the masters but I think you are missing the point. Many advisers have already completed a masters and in addition the DFP and ADFP which makes them more qualified than you. But all of a sudden they are not because they completed a masters 10 years ago which now a group (FASEA) suddenly consider irrelevant. They have already spent their thousands of dollars and years of study getting this just as you did. They have more time spent advising and you could argue may be better for this reason than you at the job and would be better suited to remaining in it. They have also spent more time completing ongoing training than you.
Imaging for example your masters was now irrelevant because you had to have completed it in the last 6 months and you have now realised your threw $30,000 down the drain and it might give you some understanding of the anger everyone else feels.
You are talking about 90% of advisers who don’t qualify under the FASEA proposals which don’t take into account existing degrees (all bar a tiny few they decided upon), existing experience and years of ongoing training but the members of which are linked to organisations which have a financial incentive for 90% of advisers to have to spend an enormous amount of time and money re-qualifying. So yes this is a conspiracy and downright corrupt.
I also completed a Masters Degree. Mine is from RMIT, a highly reputable university. I received top marks (High Distinction average). I made substantial sacrifices and received the award in 2009. Under the proposed education standard released by FASEA in December, I will be forced back to university to waste more time and money repeating my degree. I have every right to be outraged with FASEA.
Wow, there’s an original thought.
“EDUCATION… is terribly important – especially to a service economy”
Now why had I not thought of this before? Oh hold on I did. And so did many of my peers.
We spent TIME and MONEY on our education. To be PROFESSIONAL.
Only to be told by FASEA (now) that it was a waste of time. Talk about retrospectivity!.
FASEA’s work so far is really half-cooked.
Now imagine if the quality of our advice and client engagement was at this half-cooked level.
They’re going to set out standards? Pick up your work people!
Lucky you didn’t sign up with Mentor!
Why would anyone start a course when FASEA is still “consulting” the industry as to what qualifications will be required and recognised by them moving forward?
Just as likely complete a few subjects only to be told they don’t count for anything just like being a Certified Financial Planner. Thanks FPA.
As for the significant increase in numbers starting courses, no figures as usual, just more sales spin!
…and when these students find out they’ve been ‘sold a lemon’ they will not be fairly treated when asking for a refund.
Could IFA ask the question of Mark Sinclair as to why they (Mentor) are still promoting and selling courses that ultimately will be useless to new and existing advisers? And also what enrollment numbers is he is talking about since the beginning of the year? Seems only fair for Mark to answer the question honestly after such a rash statement.
there is solid core of role model planners determined to capitalise on the opportunities in the advice era and are positioning themselves through academic endeavour and personal/professional development,” Advertisers call this puffery or bullshit depending upon whether or not they have a degree.
Give me your actual numbers of enrolees
Cant see anywhere on their website that they actually offer a Master’s program
I have had a look at the Mentor Education website and there is no mention of their Bachelor’s degree program of Masters program. So how Mr Sinclair make such a statement?
Is promoting Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning courses ‘ethical” now that they are not adequate to provide advice for new entrants or existing advisers? Will the regulators look at the training institutions and provide them guidelines on their course worthiness?
I did the Mentor ADFP a few years ago. What a total waste of money and time. I can honestly say I did not learn a thing that I did not already know from practicing. Like the leeches on the board of FASEA they are just trying to make money from advisers already adequately qualified to do what they do. And worse still peddling courses to new entrants that will now be worthless.
I think the very last words of the FASEA team was “I’d like to now hand it over to all the leeches and blood suckers attached to this industry.”
Extremely well put and how very true.
I suggest Mentor Education (Mark) goes and enrolls in one of his ethics courses. Courses on “building productivity and operational efficiency needed by the next generation of advice practices”” I very much doubt would meet FASEA core competencies. Courses on Super 101, Introductory to Investments, Introduction to TAX and ethics 101 will.
The exodus is still on. I’ll be one of them.
Me too more than likely – BTW, the “Staff Reporter” who wrote this story should ask ‘Mark’ some hard questions as per the comments above. Sickening situation we face and lazy journalism incidentally.
I smell self serving BS and wishful thinking in this statement from Sinclair. Why would any adviser enrol in anything until requirements are finalised? And what is a significant increase? Two from the previous month of zero? Why doesn’t he state actual numbers?
Why enroll into a course when you don’t even know what to enroll into? I think this is a bit of self promotion because anyone that enrolls in a course now before we know the full extent of FASEA may be wasting a lot of money and time.
How can Mentor Education (Mark) take diploma and advanced diploma applications? Are they not telling students that these certificates will be worthless under FASEA guidelines? I really hope full disclosure is being provided to these students.
I wish those three advisers all the best…!
too funny!