Appearing on a new episode of the ifa Show, the FPA’s Sarah Abood discussed the association’s recent submission on the Education Standards for Financial Advisers policy paper – which proposed a pathway coined the “experience pathway” that streamlines the minimum education requirements and recognises on-the-job experience for individuals with 10 or more years of full-time experience – in which it said that “FASEA got it wrong”.
“We can disagree about what those [education standard] changes should be, but I do think that they had an impact and played a part in the decisions of some advisers who have left or might leave in 2026. But I don’t think it’s just the education standards that are behind that,” Ms Abood said.
“For many of the people I’ve spoken with, they’re feeling that the way the Royal Commission was addressed and the impact and the outcomes of that, they feel as if they’ve been loaded up with all the blame for a lot of things that went wrong in the industry completely unfairly.
“They’re running great, complying, client-focused practises, and yet they’re carrying this burden.”
Last year it was reported that the number of advisers in Australia shrank below 19,000 and is predicted to reach 13,000 by the end of 2023.
Ms Abood said these factors, including the “damaging publicity” from the Royal Commission and “regulatory overreach”, has resulted in the decline of adviser numbers.
“… for many of them, that’s a big factor in their decision to leave and I think that many have made that decision already,” she said.
“I don’t think that changing the standards now will necessarily bring a huge number of advisers back to the industry. We need to do more than that.”
Listen to the full podcast with Ms Abood here.
‘Damaging publicity’ ; I bet no one has left the industry because of that. It is all to do with unnecessary compliance and new taxes and fees introduced by the Liberal government and ASIC.
ALL ACCOUNTANTS WITH A PRACTICE CERTIFICATE SHOULD
BE ABLE TO GIVE OR REFER INVESTMENT ADVICE.
funny thing this. accountants have always given business advice which includes investment advice in buying plant and equipment, etc, buildings…and rental properties…..and lots more. traditionally they have also done cash flow and tax advice,,,,budgeting….
i agree with the comments. i started the transition out of financial planning in 2016 and then further again in 2018 by starting 2 different and new businesses, which have been hugley successfull, since 2021 it has been finalised. less operating costs, less stress, i am an adviser that wears other hats like most accountants, best thing i ever did. but i do miss giving the advice and attending to lots of CPD and meeting people and learning. the FPA, government and ASIC killed something I loved doing and i did it well. I can understand how the Ukranians feel today. Because i feel the same. Not bitter not angry. just sad. advisers have good skills that they can utilise elsewhere and this is what they cannot see themselves, they have the skills to move on.
I was an adviser for nearly a decade and I decided to make a change to a paraplanning role as I no longer wanted to shoulder the legal risk of being an adviser. I have not looked back. The litany of terrible decisions made by the government that has caused this mess; pointing the finger almost solely at advisers even though complaints about poor financial advice made up less than 10% of the total submissions to the royal commission.
So everything that advisers said would happen, has happened. If that is the case shouldn’t the government, ASIC, the Law Reform etc. who are trying to fix the mess they created in the first place, take input from advisers as one of the more important voices to talk to, instead of the FPA, Choice, product providers and union funds?
Agreed, Sadly the Government works by only listening to lobby groups for the most part. Our industry bodies argued different view points back in the day and as a result we were ignored and ended up be overtrodden by other interest groups that don’t like advisers. Would be good if some lessons have been learnt and our industry bodies actually got together and represented our interest correctly.
Away with your common sense 🙂 yep that pretty much sums up how we got here. Bureaucrats and industry groups who are all detached from the reality of being a client facing adviser deciding how things should be! Those that can do, those that can’t make rules and legislation!
One of the main reasons some advisers are leaving is that the Hayne2 legislation makes it too expensive to provide service support to many time poor working families, who don’t have the time to do complete ridiculous ongoing pointless red tape paperwork. Until Hayne2 is reversed, over 1 million families will be left without service support. This is a shameful legacy from both Liberal & Labor in the current Parliament.
We need to get rid of Fee Consent Forms. Client Service Agreements are more than enough. Our service is between us and the client.
true
Agreed. Or if there is an annual opt-in, every other compliance BS can be dropped off. Why do the government think that grown adults can’t think for themselves and need ASIC to supervise service being provided – if the adult signs an annual form continuing the relationship, end of story.
Too funny really after being seen to be doing very little for FPs while they are being slammed by government all of a sudden the FPA feels its important to have a voice. Membership becoming an issue?
It appears that giant echo has finally made it back to the FPA. Advisers have been screaming this stuff for years…
Whilst she has said her piece she hasn’t actually done anything about it. The FPA have been good at talking and terrible at doing for years.