In an upcoming episode of The ifa Show podcast, myIntegrity in Practice principal consultant Joel Ronchi said while the government clearly had every intention of passing legislation to enable an extension of the exam compliance deadline to 2022, given the uncertainty created by COVID-19 advisers should plan to pass the exam in 2020 regardless.
“I always say to everyone I deal with, you’ve got to go with what the law is now – it’s like financial advice, you never give advice to clients based on what is being kicked around in Parliament, you’ve got to go with what’s law,” Mr Ronchi said.
“You’ve got to aim for the fact that it may not get passed in time, so at least have a crack this year so that if you can get through, you do get through.”
Mr Ronchi said FASEA’s recent announcement that it had postponed face-to-face exam sessions until at least August had further discouraged some advisers from taking on the next sitting of the exam, as they would rather not face concerns around IT issues on top of their existing anxiety around the exam content.
“I’ve spoken to plenty of advisers who were going to sit the April sitting, kicked the can down the road to the June sitting hoping that would be face to face, and as it turns out it’s not going to be so they will probably go down to the August sitting,” he said.
“It’s for a whole range of reasons, one is the what if scenario – what if the internet drops out or something happens?
“Most of the advisers I deal with are typically 45-plus and IT would not be their strong suit, so they would much prefer to go into a structured environment where if something goes wrong, there’s someone on hand to help them and they can get it resolved straightaway.”
Mr Ronchi said a similar situation had occurred with one adviser he worked with who had sat the April exam remotely, and had his session interrupted by a server outage.
“During the exam there was an IT issue with the platform, which meant he lost 10 minutes during the exam while the facilitator had to go off and fix it, so it kind of got him a bit anxious,” he said.
“He said at the end he wasn’t able to spend as much time reviewing as he would have liked – he didn’t think it cost him the exam, but it did throw him off his game.”
Why does it take them so long to get the exam result?? Surely they could get you the result within a week to 10 days??
Jeeez I’m so sick of these FARCE-IA clowns and their nonsense. Just when you think you’re rid of them they crawl back out of their little crack in the damp soil. Maybe they should talk to Phil Kewin at the AFA re his recent broadcast that we can be CONFIDENT in the time extensions. Just unreal, P**S off, STP stressing us unnecessarily and let us do our jobs and look after our clients in peace you absolute annoying gooses!
I have been on the fence whether I sit the exam at the moment now it is online and not face to face. I was told by my licensee that Kaplan’s practice exam is now remote with the same online technology + the cost is minimal ($75). I am going to give it a try and see how I go as I am keen to get it done and pass.
That’s so great, go you and you can discuss it in your group.
But you’re not that “keen” apparently. The exam opened in June 2019 and we’ve now had 5 sittings.
So once you have organised how you “feel” about it, off you go!
Let’s be honest, if you haven’t attempted the exam by now, your heart isn’t really in it. Apologies to those who have suffered from some kind of tragedy. But for the rest of you, it’s time to face up to reality. Your procrastination and excuses are trying to tell you something. Do yourselves a favour and move on. This profession is stuffed anyway.
Amen!!!!
I’ve started a new business, have a new family, have 6 subjects to complete, have sat all the practice exams in preparation… Congrats if you’ve found the time to do so, I will sit when I’m good and ready and so are alot of other advisers I know as well… Your comments are just childish.
Well, with all that going on, if your dog passes away and your car breaks down you’ll have a good country music song there. You’ll need about a 3 or 4 month plan, 1 or 2 months to book the exam in advance and 2 months to get your results. If you don’t pass first go, do that all again. With that sort of time frame, any wonder many of the people posting here are prompting others to get sorted asap and don’t leave it to the last moment. Personally, I wish you well and encourage you to take this very seriously – soon. If you get crushed by the time pressure, you can’t say you weren’t warned. BTW the way, no pass in time means you need an Approved Degree and do the PY as well – no bridging pathway allowed.
So where are the FPA and AFA now. Silient as usual. Remember their efforts when the invoices to join them comes your way. Thanks De Gori and Kewin and Anderson. Thanks for nothing. You pretend to care while siding with the FSC as they are funding you. FYI they are also funding FASEA. Ethics and Conflicts you say….the consumer and advisers do not matter.
Kewin made a video just the other day saying we can have CONFIDENCE the extemsions would happen in time – for what its worth. But vthat answers your question – at least he’s done something my letting us know. Quite in contrast to what this goose from FARCE-IA is dribbling.
Oh well looks like a lot of advisers won’t be advisers next year, don’t worry though there will be no one to advise as most will be broke and bankrupt due to Covid-19……..just saying.
The deadline extension may also end up being blocked in the senate by Labor and the Greens. Although Labor previously said they would pass it, that was before the Libs infuriated the unions by allowing early super release.
Don’t be surprised if Labor’s union masters now instruct them to block the extension legislation. Doing so would remove lots of licensed advisers overnight, and force more consumers to rely on conflicted “general” advice from union funds. It would be one way for the unions to stem the loss of money to early release.
Don’t give them any ideas…we know they are lurking on here…
Yeah good!! The extension shouldn’t be there anyway. Do your stuff and stop sobbing.
Damn straight
Would love to sit the exam. I was booked for the April sitting, which got moved to June and now cancelled. I would do exam via remote proctoring, but I don’t have a reliable enough internet connection, have kids at home where I am working at present and I am not overly comfortable with opening my firewall and letting an overseas entity have full access to my computer. Your statement above “do your stuff and stop sobbing” highlights that you are either naive, failing to grasp the current Covid-19 situation, living in a bubble or just plain arrogant!
This leaves us with the delicious possibility of FASEA breaking the law, but in an ethical way. “What ought one do?”
Like that, nice. So teleological rather than deontological then?
1. Don’t understand why anyone would not have a swing at the exam this year. Do the Kaplan prep course $125
2. Not everyone on the FAR is going to sit. A lot of Advisers don’t plan on doing the exam and leaving – including plenty at AMP and others retiring. No extension will cut short their plans by a year.
3. The stockbroking industry, which has one of the lowest average level of qualifications (a 2 subject Dip) is probably cactus. It’s an average – don’t post back you have a degree if you’re a stockbroker. You’re just special.
If the extension doesn’t get up this year, ASIC will probably provide relief before the legislation is passed.
Just a note: ASIC are powerless to provide relief – it’s not in the Corps Act, and therefore not their responsibility. Any relief must come from the government. Even FASEA have said that they have no power to offer relief.
Nah mate, they can. You really should understand this stuff before you post. See ASIC MR20-085 just release as an example. ASIC just gave relief on the Corporations Law regarding advice on early release on super – ROA instead of SOA. Fine to post an opinion, not fine to post on stuff where you just don’t know how it works.
Because I want to do the so called Ethics course first. Isn’t at least 1/3 the exam on Ethics.
What system asks you to do the exam before doing the course.
Don’t need to do the Ethics course first, see FASEA guidance for what is on the exam. Training your eyes on the second hurdle might mean you trip on the first.
The FASEA system…??
I say do the ethics course then do the exam. It will save you studying for FASEA exam. You don’t have time to be studying things twice. Not doing the Ethcis course first, would be like reading the assembly instructions after you’ve assembled the product.
Please do not be influenced by this. The Ethics course does NOT cover all of the elements of the FASEA exam (Corporations Law, AML, TPB, Privacy Act) . Most people have done the exam first -and those that passed prepared specifically for it.