Responses to questions on notice from the Senate economics committee from FASEA reveal that just 700 of 22,000 advisers on the ASIC register have so far completed their full educational requirements under the new standards, which come into force for existing advisers on 1 January 2026.
WA Liberal senator and economics committee member Slade Brockman asked the authority in a previous hearing whether FASEA was “concerned that only a relatively small percentage of advisers have completed their study to this point”, and how many advisers were expected to complete the new standards by 2026.
“FASEA’s legislative remit under section 921U of the [Corporations] Act is to make legislative instruments to implement the education and training requirements of Section 921B of the act; to approve or refuse to approve foreign qualifications; and to administer the relevant provider exam,” the authority said.
“The decision by existing relevant providers to complete the condition 1 education requirement of the act is an individual choice. FASEA does not have available statistics to allow it to express a view regarding how many relevant providers will choose to meet the conditions required by Section 921B.”
The authority said while numbers of compliant advisers so far were low, the requirements that most existing advisers had yet to complete were not particularly onerous.
“A further 6,000 – 30 per cent – of relevant providers hold an approved degree are only required to complete one ethics bridging course by the end of 2025,” FASEA said.
“Based on information recorded on the FAR, it is estimated over 55 per cent of existing relevant providers are only required to complete up to four units of study by the end of 2025. That is less than one unit per year.
“For comparative purposes, on average, a graduate diploma with eight units would generally take two years to complete on a part-time basis. A full Bachelor degree, not required by FASEA for existing advisers, would have taken three years full time or six years part time.”
uhh where’s the fire? We have a whole 5 years left to complete the standards. Advisers are not just advisers &/or business owners….they have families & should have interests outside work (I know, I dare said it, but it’s true!). Advisers SHOULD be allowed to have SOME work-life balance… A burnt-out adviser is NOT an adviser you want to have looking after you. For pete’s (and everyone elses’) sake we are not bloody machines….the expectations on advisers are COMPLETELY unrealistic & it’s not healthy to have this much pressure mounted on any individual over a sustained amount of time…watch us all drop like birds from the sky trying to kill ourselves to keep up with everything in the shortest time-frame possible!
Anyone ever think that the clients pay us to do their compliance?
Modern day Slavery dealt by bureaucrats who have no clue at what it takes to succeed in this profession! We only get paid on a positive outcome and the compliance work & requirements are now more stress full than the job!
I chose not to…your move ASIC.
I work in remediation. Myself and a number of colleagues have met the full set of FASEA requirements, but it can’t be recorded on ASIC’s register as we are not currently licensed through an AFSL. Similar issues with the TPB, we can’t renew those registrations even though we continue to meet the TPB’s entry and ongoing requirements as they don’t offer a ‘non-practising’ option like the FPA which accounts for changes of roles (management etc) while requiring all standards continue to be met.
If you are an Existing Relevant Provider (on the FAR between 2016 and 2018) all of those credentials can up updated when (and if) you are licensed again. I suggest sometime this year as ASIC have to be told you have passed the exam before 31/12/21. I stayed licensed, outside of my current job, for this very purpose with a negative pledge – for the time being – not to give advice.
Yes, I’m on the FAR, sat the exam over a year ago, meet education standards etc but can’t be licensed outside my current remediation job.
Do you and your colleagues seriously expect to get jobs as advisers again after working in remediation?
That’s a bit harsh. I will be coming back to advice after this game is over in 2021 and the only FAR licensed people still here have all passed the FASEA exam. That way I’ll know who is who in the Zoo. Not in a small suburban firm though, that model doesn’t work anymore.
Probably. You know which advisers to target to get their clients.
I know of a couple of advisers who recently left remediation programs (it’s not bad money) and are now targeting planners clients who were subject to remediation. Not a bad way to build a practice quickly.
Are you saying they used their remediation roles to breach client privacy for commercial advantage? If so I encourage you to report them to ASIC, OAIC, their licensee, the TPB, and any professional association they are members of.
The optics of this is not good. An auditor who should be objective, has gone in with a pre conceived notion that they will establish their own business and take over an advisor whom they will put through the ringer and force them out, in order to achieve their own self interests. If the auditor does their job the dealer group will look after them.
not particularly onerous – sure, it’s a walk in the park
Have you started? I passed FASEA exam after no more than 30 hours of study and have only 4 subjects to complete after allowing for CFP exemptions and did first two already with no more than 30 hours per subject, generally 15 hour doing an assignment last minute or cramming for exam, both generally the day before they are due, haven’t missed a result yet. So that’s around 150 hours total for all requirements, which I had from like 2018 until now 2026 to complete, but managed to do all in 2020 on top of market correction and COVID and starting my own business after leaving an insto. Maybe spend less time on here and more time on the requirements if you are are so concerned….
Hear hear! More voices like this one- good on you Timmy!
Well, then you will be prepared to do it all again in 2050 when standards are changed again?
I agree, had very much the same experience. Didn’t do cramming and spent about 25 hours per subject while working plus other large projects.
Ah so you did your subjects through Kaplan then – figures
I did the first module of a graduate diploma with four or five other financial advisers together. Three of us ended up being traumatised by the experience of academics telling us, who are experts, what financial planning is, including grading us on [b]their[/b] interpretation of what financial planning is. One of us went all out and presented a great piece of work and got probably the lowest, though passing, grade. Others spend a lot of time and also got a low/medium score. I spent a total of 25 hours and did an absolutely minimalist piece of work but conforming to !their! idea and got the same score. Since I am not looking for employment I only needed to pass.
I have since finished the graduate diploma and found it easy once I could accept the absurdity of the situation. I got the best score – high distinction – 🙂 for something where I pretended I knew nothing, relied on the provided guidance and did exactly what they recommended to do to remedy my lack of knowledge or understanding.
The key is not to take the studies as a learning experience. I learnt literally nothing in any of the modules. If you do, great but don’t count on it. It is an exercise of repeating what they write in their material back to them and not to get caught up in the “you are not good enough, we know better than you” consciousness. If they did know better, a good financial adviser earns substantially more than a university lecturer.
Further tips: The earlier exams / assignments are easier as less material is covered. Do well on those and you can cruise. Avoid stress like the plague, do your learning and assignments as soon as you can, well before the deadline, don’t submit them though because the best questions and answers in the student forums come a few days before the deadline and give you an easy way to add further choices.
Lastly, studying before 7 or 8am is many times more productive than at any other time. Studying after work is not recommended.
Spot on, this is not a learning opportunity, its a box to tick. End of story. Just tick it and move on. 51%, a pass, is all that is required. Any employer worth working for wont care what your results are once you have the ticket, they will teach you what is really worth knowing, and you wont find much of it in their text books.
This response is exactly the reason why ethics cannot be examined & why education standards do not make more ethical people… People who short-cut & do only the minimum that is required of them will always do that, regardless of the circumstances they find themselves in. Depending on which educator you did your Grad Dip through, depends on whether this was tick & flick. But of course you only stopped at the Grad Dip & didn’t continue on to complete a masters (unless the masters was through Kaplan, then yes it is just tick & flick as well). The fact that you didn’t even bother to try & get more out of the experience that could expand your knowledge & therefore your offering to your clients speaks volumes. You are the kind of adviser that these standards were meant to weed out. Congratulations you have a very expensive piece of paper that is worth nothing because you didn’t bother putting any effort into it.
Its a tick and flick so we can all keep our high salaries
All education is designed this way unfortunately. It’s not about learning, but remembering as much of the information they teach you as possible. Those that can recall more information, perform better against their marking standards.
10,000 remaining by 31 December 2021
I reckon 8,752.
Given they change the rules regularly why would you rush?
Fasea comment “the requirements that most existing advisers had yet to complete were not particularly onerous”. proves that they have NO idea what is involved in running a FP Practice as a one man operation and Nor do they care
If you cannot find 30 hours a subject (approx 15 hours per month, max) then your doing ‘running a FP practice’ wrong, or need to look at merging with someone else or you’ll work yourself into an early grave instead of a comfortable retirement.
Anonymous, clearly you know everything. Congratulations.
Thank you.
doing these topics properly takes 30-40 hours per week – even the university suggests truly committing and outsourcing house maintenance, grass mowing, cleaning and car washing and restructuring your whole life – having supportive people around you to leverage the completion of these subjects which are to a Masters level and extremely academic in approach / delivery and expectation. There’s not much is life that is quick nor cheap and these uni subjects are taking “work load” to the next level