In a statement, FASEA said it had made the decision “to provide all financial advisers who have yet to pass the exam, the option to sit the November Exam irrespective of the timing of their last sitting”.
“To give effect to this, the Corporations (Relevant Providers Exam Standard) Determination 2019 will be amended to provide relief from the 3 month registration requirement. This amendment will provide financial advisers with two opportunities to sit the exam before the end of the current transition period (being either July and November sittings or September and November sittings),” the standards authority said.
“This amendment will allow all candidates who have been unsuccessful at any prior sitting to sit the November exam which will be offered via Remote Proctoring and at exam venues, subject to COVID protocols.”
The requirement for advisers to wait 90 days before resitting the exam has been a key headache for candidates who have failed being able to resit multiple sessions of the exam in a given year.
FASEA said it would consult with stakeholders prior to the legislative instrument commencing on 14 July.
“This amendment will also provide those impacted by the NSW lockdown with additional future exam options if required. ACER will contact the impacted July candidates to provide alternative options for their July sitting,” the authority said.




Let’s have an exam on ethics for politicians. Make it mandatory to pass the exam to be able to register as a candidate with the Electoral Commission. What pass rates would we expect?
The industry is broken in any event. Completely broken.
I’ve recently passed the exam. After sitting I had no idea whether I had passed or failed. What a waste of time, effort and money. It was a poorly contrived exercise in futility. I am now no more ethical or better educated than I was before. I sympathize with and fear for the professional future of those who have sat the exam and failed. It has imperiled the livelihoods of many good Advisers.
It really does beggar belief. No wonder we advisers have no respect for FASEA. Its a bit like the presidential pardon in the US. Didn’t make the grade? C’mon, we’ll see you right.
Sick of being treated like a moron. No hang on, that’s a criminal moron.
Any chance of this occupation being considered professional has now gone until 31/12/2025. I hope you are all ready for “it takes less than time to be a financial planner than it does to be a hair dresser” to become “financial planners couldn’t even pass a simple exam which tested them on ethics and financial planning”.
I definitely don’t think it was a valid exam but facts won’t stop 30 second sound bites when the ALP wins the next election. The dinosaurs who couldn’t do an exam in 30 months have again ruined financial planning.
Yep sure the dinosaurs who couldn’t do an exam in 30 mths have again ruined financial planning again.
Wake up clown, there is plenty more wrong in this industry than a few not completing an exam you even say wasn’t valid.
This industry was and always will be a service industry and never a profession and it has naught to do with the planners, what other profession experiences these constant rules changes this industry is not only not professional but an absolute joke.
And THIS right here ladies and gentleman… is why the “profession” will never be seen as a profession. HAHA
Wow. I am a gen x/y planner and looked at the comments on here. What venom and disdain for your fellow colleagues in the planning industry. Its quite nauseating. I am lucky – I have been studying for ever and well-versed on exams so I am not fussed though some are not. Why does it matter if one cant do an exam first off or they need an extension. EVERYONE should be given the chance to have a career and look after their families… No wonder why the planning industry is so disjointed and has no unified voice.
Agreed. So this is the new breed of adviser is it? I personally would have thought people with understanding and empathy of others being in different positions in life would have been an essential characteristic of a good adviser., clearly not what this new regime is promoting. I’ve passed the exam ages ago and are a typical gen x adviser, but it will be a shame to see the older expertise removed from the industry due to this pathetic excuse for an exam. Seeing the comments of the type of people that will be taking their places is not encouraging either. Clearly the average client is going to be worst off going forward.
I am in agreement with you on selected issues. Yes…our industry is very disjointed and hence the many issues we face are difficult to resolve without clear leadership and direction.
However, with regards to FASEA exam, the industry has had more than sufficient time for completion.
Over-regulation has impacted us all. And yet those of us who have sat and passed the exam have been required to ensure we complete our CPD requirements and meet the numerous guidelines imposed by legislation. We are not afforded an extension on failure to meet CPD/E requirements.
Those who have not completed their exam should seriously be questioning their time management skills.
It is really about two things – fairness and competence.
Forcing a new requirement on long established practitioners is rough and it needs something as embarrassing as the royal commission to make that happen. On the other hand there was a lot of really incompetent advice going on and financial planning needed to smarten up.
The way it was all done was … not good … and we all know the excruciating details. On the other hand an insurance adviser who doesn’t know superannuation or estate planning is not really competent either, hence the tension.
If FASEA can backflip (twice) on rules where no change was needed, why can’t they fix the unworkable Standard 3 which is far more important?
empathy, not a trait for some advisers still with their comments below?
Some of the people in the industry that would give you the shirt off their backs struggle with the way the questions are asked. Make the politicians and ASIS staff all do it, if they don’t pass, throw them all out and cut off their incomes from businesses they had spent years nurturing.
How can a risk profile that says cash is safe and shares and property are risky when the RBA is printing $5000 million dollars a month and killing savers. That is the real joke!
Please. If its about empathy, then you have none for those advisers who payed by the rules and rearranged their lives in order to meet the deadlines.
Risk profile is the most moronic questionnaire ever.
Fake information – RBA does not print, it types numbers on the computer based on the instruction they receive from the treasury.
If you can’t pass the exam you should not be advising. Yes it is a stupid exam but it also wasn’t that hard to pass when you had 30 months.
They must finally be realizing the planner exodus carnage
They are not at all concerned about that.
The dinosaurs live to see another day!
desperate grab for votes by a desperate government…we’ll be your friend if you vote for us…Scummo
It beggars belief how this is political. Strange how there is always someone in the audience that turns whatever topic it is, into politics. Myself i couldn’t care less who runs our country.
Until they take your job away… then I guess it becomes important?
So looks like at this stage by the time we get to Dec they’ll probably just give everyone who has left things to the last minute and/or isn’t across the content enough to pass, the option just to keep doing it until they do – nice work, really shifted the dial guys and makes it so worthwhile putting in the extra time on top of everything else to get it done…
This is still NOT going to convince those 6000 or so advisers to write who are exiting anyway…when 6000 advisers quit in January, 18,000 or more people will likely ‘lose’ their jobs…this is not a good headline for the liberal party…that is all they are worried about….
It want make a headline in the mainstream media. Maybe a blurb in the financial section. The LNP, ALP, Greens and wider community are not at all concerned.
This is staggering.
Makes a mockery of the whole thing !
The whole thing was always already a complete mockery
Now it is staggering that there is a mockery of the mockery.
Wait until 4Corners get a sniff of this, “Financial Planners who fail an Ethics exam twice, get another go”
The last vestiges of the utter disdain of advisers in which FASEA started are disappearing. What a stupid rule this was.
cant wait for the extensions and changes to the post grad requirement
The September exams are on September 9th-14th. The last date to register for the November exam is October 15. Will the September results even be out in time to register for November if needed??
How utterly unethical to change rules during the process, albeit it is good to see the removal of a stupid, bureaucratic rule. How completely unfair to those who had to wait, and wait, to enrol again. What. A. Joke.
Ridiculous.
An even better decision would be to scrap the whole exam altogether, refund the advisers who already did it then make an exam on ethics mandatory for all the stupid politicians and ASIC staff
No truer words written! Well said.
Can’t be serious. Sit it 100 times and we’ll give you another shot next year. Keep lowering the bar and we’ll never be regarded as a profession.
110% agree – wasted opportunity
Agree – the exam is not that hard unless you have been hiding under a rock for last decade.
The penny has dropped in Canberra….
Super unfair to all those who made the effort from the get go. Then again I call this panic. They can see the exodus.
Yaaaaaayyyyy……..common sense finally prevails
Penalises those who did the right thing from the get go.
What a joke. Changes the rules on the fly is not fair to anyone.