A total of 328 candidates (52 per cent) have passed the July and August financial adviser exam of the 628 who participated, ASIC confirmed on Thursday (1 September).
The corporate regulator confirmed that 76 per cent of the candidates were resitting the exam for at least the second time.
Of those who have passed:
- Over 15,800 are recorded as current financial advisers on ASIC’s Financial Adviser Register (FAR), representing 95 per cent of current advisers on the FAR.
- Over 2,500 are ceased advisers on the FAR and may be re-authorised in the future.
- Over 700 were new to the industry.
- Over 3,300 unsuccessful candidates have re-sat the exam, with 74 per cent passing at a re-sit.
The latest sitting was the last opportunity for advisers who are operating under the nine-month exam extension to pass the exam. From 1 October 2022, all financial advisers must have passed the exam to continue to provide personal advice.
ASIC has confirmed anyone eligible for the extension who has not passed in any of the three cycles this year will not be able to provide personal advice from 1 October.
“For financial advisers who are eligible for the exam extension, but have not passed the exam in 2022, there is an opportunity for you to take steps with your Australian financial service (AFS) licensee to limit the effect of this outcome,” ASIC said in a statement.
“If your licensee ceases your authorisation on or before 30 September 2022, you will still need to pass the exam before you can become re-authorised and re-commence providing personal advice. However, you will not need to complete a professional year and you will have until 1 January 2026 to obtain an approved degree.
“If your licensee does not cease your authorisation on or before 30 September 2022, it will cease by operation of the law and you will no longer be able to provide personal advice. To become re-authorised and re-commence providing personal advice, you will need to complete a professional year and obtain an approved degree in addition to passing the exam.”
The results come after just over 40 per cent of candidates passed the May sitting.
Earlier this month, the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals’ (AIOFP) executive director, Peter Johnston told ifa that the industry group was “naturally disappointed” that financial services Minister Stephen Jones did not defer the exam until after the 1 October “cliff” date to restructure it in the recently-released consultation paper on education standards and the adviser exam.
However, Mr Johnston recently told ifa that the AIOFP had “not given up” on seeking an extension past 1 October.
“With the ridiculous past degree issue countered by the 10-year rule — thanks to Minister Jones — the big current issue is the exam October 1st ‘cliff’ date. The less-than-four-week time frame between when the results of the ‘last chance’ exam are released by ASIC and the ‘cliff date’ is totally unreasonable for unsuccessful advisers to sell/transition their business,” Mr Johnston said.
“If the exam format changes post October 1st for new entrants, why can’t current advisers that failed be given the same opportunity?”
In the consultation paper, Mr Jones also addressed the 30 September deadline for existing advisers to pass the exam and continue to provide financial advice, saying that following the deadline, he will ask Treasury to explore how the exam can be improved, such as reducing the number of questions.
Stop complaining people. A least we saved the Bacon of a few CBA executives so we should all feel grateful about FASEA.
If you were unable to pass that exam you will want to take a couple of months leave to do the ethics subject
Perhaps you could try to get your exam back through the Freedom of Information Legislation, now that ASIC has the administration of FASEA. Let everyone know the outcome of your efforts.
ANSWER THIS :::::: WHY WOULD THEY NOT GIVE EXAM PAPERS BACK ???? Northing to hide here, oh thanks for the 400,000 clients industry ponzi fund just vacumed up. this was a culling exercise. one agian why would they not give papers back?? oh they could not think of 80 diffirent questions? dead set fraud corruption.
Before they were marked or after they were marked?
Either would be fine by me – that way I can show my friends just how crazy the questions really are.
They won’t give the papers back because it would expose how deliberately obtuse and tricky many of the questions were. The double-banger true and false questions took the cake. If you get only one right, you get zero marks for it – 2 chances to catch you out! Totally unethical, like most of the things FASEA did. Friday evening press releases, fake consultation, secret ASIC meetings, disregarding the mandate given by government, extreme standards beyond anything required by other professions, the list goes on and on and on….
agreed the questions were very tricky and unusual, they often did not make sense. Who writes these questions is it a hands on financial planner or hands on public servant. Yes the true false i have never experienced before in an exam. This is not an industry for egg heads it is more about trust and being straight forward and keeping it simple, clients like that. This ethics thing is everywhere now in all industry’s but we are the only industry that kicks people out with an exam on it. If a client comes in for advice depending on the advisor there will be 20 different roads to tread to get ahead, so who is right. From my experience every client that has every sat in front of me has made the majority of their money from direct property yet a financial planner is not allowed or capable or willing to advising clients on property, because they can not take it out of the product. So what are planners recommending, it is just insurance and super?
If you want great ethics and clean up the industry then simple no revenue from products, client invoiced then we will have clients more likely to receive value for money.
The exam is not hard if you have common sense, understand how to use process of elimination for multi choice, and do the example exams available from asic and kaplan (both free currently). The deadline is running out and i think any sympathy for repeat failures has also run out
If the AIOFP could not get the Liberal party to make changes, what chances have you got of getting the Labor party to? Lets not forget it was Bill Shorten who introduced FOFA in 2012. I was lucky to pass the exam first time, but I believe it had very little to do with financial planning. It is not an exam you could measure a planners ability on. So what is it’s purpose? And why should new advisers joining the industry need to pass it?
[i]The less-than-four-week time frame between when the results of the ‘last chance’ exam are released by ASIC and the ‘cliff date’ is totally unreasonable for unsuccessful advisers to sell/transition their business,” Mr Johnston said.[/i]
These people haven’t had 4 weeks to prepare for this, they have had years.
The exam is not simple, as its not about knowledge but the exam technique, I have spoken to several academics, they stated there is something wrong to have so many people failing,
1/ Is it the quality of candidates ?
2/ materiel provided to prepare for exam?
3/ the exam questions?
Which is it or is it all 3 or ?? this needs to investigated
You’re not looking at the whole population. “So many failing” is only accurate now. And now its only the worst of the worst still attempting. If you include the entire adviser population, at 1 exam sitting each, I’d suggest the pass rate is quite normal, around the 70% mark over the lifespan of the exam for advisers first attempts. You cannot judge the suitability of the exam based on the bottom of the barrel advisers still clinging on for dear life to an industry that left them behind some years ago.
Seriously, how does passing this exam matter anymore when Michelle Levy seems to be saying personal advice should be available all over the place?
What is the point of exam?
Exactly. Will the people who are ‘all over the place’ giving advice have to pass the exam and meet FASEA requirements? I think not. We now have the FSC and adviser/product rep organisations praising the beloved Ms Levy for recommending that any Tom, Dick and Harry can provide advice. What a total farce this industry has become.
Is it just me or has this whole process just been embarrassing. For example have you ever heard of something as ludicrous that advisers had to fail an exam a couple of times to ‘earn the right’ to an extension. Seriously!
AIOFP, move on to real issues – the massive cost of the ASIC tax, growing PI insurance costs, the insane amount of paperwork required for the annual audit for AFSL holders etc etc
not to mention the potential that the QAR will open the floodgates for product providers can funnel people into their products under the guise of digital advice…
Where is the empathy for our peers, just be happy that you have passed it and maybe help those that need it, if you dont have anything supportive to say maybe think twice before ……………………………
If you cant pass the exam by now, then they are not our peers. Sorry, we are competent and prepare ourselves for success… some don’t……….
It’s hardly a “cliff” when there has been about 15 opportunities to resit the exam, over more than 3 years, with the deadline extended twice. The exam may not be perfect, but anyone who doesn’t have sufficient organisational skills, comprehension abilities, and basic intelligence to pass it with all those concessions should not be working as an adviser.
AIOFP seems to be wasting resources and goodwill lobbying for even more extensions and concessions.
Another loop hole provided for a bunch of people who should definitely not be advising anyone on their financial affairs
Lots of stockbrokers in the three 2022 exam sittings so far (the failed twice extension group).
How is this an exam cliff? Advisers have had 3 years, 2 extensions and a watering down of the exam to try and get them over the line.
Isn’t this just the clean-out that FASEA was designed for?
You are missing the point, as the exam if you re sit it changes dramatically each time. It is a disaster to try and pass, money grabbing exercise as to where all the funds go…. Who Knows!
agreed
Cheeky, unfair loophole isn’t it.
hang on – is ASIC saying that if the Licensee ceases the authorisation then they can just pass the exam and no prof year is needed, but it ASIC ceases them they don’t have to do the prof year…??? this seems like a loophole no-one knew about before??? or am i missing something?
If ASIC ceases them, they DO have to do a Prof year, pass the exam and meet the education requirements. If the licensee ceases it, they get a holiday from advising for a few years and can come back with their education requirements, pass the exam and not need to do the professional year.
but if the licensee ceases them, they don’t even have to do the education requirement until 2026 according to the email ASIC sent this morning, so it’s just ANOTHER loophole! seems unfair for those of us who did the work… they can just take a 6 month break, pass the exam and come back…
The 300 advisers struggling to pass a fairly easy exam, that they have sat time and time again probably should be hanging up their hats! It’s time to move on, AIOFP you do not represent the majority of advisers who think enough chances to pass have already been given.
so why are these results out to the public but the candidates do not have the detail
I failed the exam and there is no feedback at all. It’s actually not that easy of an exam. Just a complete money grab by ASIC. 50% only. That just shows how poorly written the exam is.
Only people still taking the exam had to have failed at least twice, no wonder they dont consider it easy. It was and is an easy exam for anyone that should still be in the industry.
easy is not a fair description. I have a masters degree in finance and this exam was up there in terms of demands (it not intellectual rigour). But it was made unnecessarily complex by the style of questions. I passed first time but it was one of no more than three exams out of scores I have sat where I had little confidence on how I would fare on leaving the exam room. PS Had plenty of friends get through uni degrees on complimentary passes, and summer resits. And they are out in the work force and doing fine.
I am sorry you didn’t pass. So where do you go from here? (genuine question)
I guess I just sit it exam. Doing my PY but this just holds things up.