Industry veteran launches ethics and leadership CPD course

With the CPD requirements for financial advisers expanding to 40 hours, including at least nine hours of professionalism and ethics, some within the profession have deemed the idea that advisers require ongoing training in order to act ethically “insulting”.

Looking to help advisers and other financial services professionals not just meet their requirements but also gain a deeper understanding of ethical decision making, former Elders Financial Planning general manager Tony Beaven has launched a course called Influencing the Culture in Financial Services Businesses through the Guild of Ethics, Culture & Leadership.

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The three-module course, Beaven told ifa, has been more than four years in the making and aims to fill in the gaps that he believes are still present in financial services.

“Every company in the world wants to influence culture, and especially with financial services and FASEA and ASIC and the regulations around this, and the requirements for CPD points, but even the FASEA course itself and the exam that you do, it doesn’t show you the deep understanding of ethics,” he said.

“If you ask anybody what ethics means, they’ll say, ‘to do the right thing’. But they don’t know the deep understanding of ethics. It’s ethical theory, leadership styles, leadership, emotional intelligence, ethical decision making, and then how to apply the theory in a practical application sense in an organisation to start influencing the culture.”

The course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office in the UK for 30 hours of CPD for each of the three modules.

According to Beaven, the course is designed to take each individual through a “unique journey” to learn “how to make the right ethical decisions”.

“I wanted this course to be unique, and it does have an exam. It’s difficult to pass. It has a 65 per cent pass rate, and there are assignments that have to be completed for each module,” he said.

“But what I wanted to do is make sure that the adviser absolutely understands and embeds this knowledge, because then all of a sudden, their ethical leadership, their understanding of ethics, emotional intelligence, organisational change, becomes much more comprehensive.”

Beaven added that advisers can do the course a module at a time, with the cost for each at $599.

“I wanted to keep it the pricing down, because I’m so conscious of all the costs of financial advisers with the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort fees, all different administration fees that are happening,” he said.

“This is about really taking the adviser on a journey where they learn so much more about how to understand really in-depth ethics and ethical theory.”