New entrants to the advice profession will be required to undertake 800 hours of education and training and will be labelled as ‘Provisional Financial Advisers’ under new proposed standards released by the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA).
The standard setting body made the suggestions in two consultation papers related to the Professional Year (PY) all new advice entrants will be required to complete before they can provide personal advice to retail clients.
In one of the papers, FASEA suggested that a new advice entrant be referred to as a Provisional Financial Adviser “…to ensure it is obvious that the individual is undertaking the work and training requirements” and they cannot be referred to by any other term, including ‘Financial Adviser’ or ‘Financial Planner’.
The paper also suggested the terms ‘Candidate Adviser’, ‘Trainee Adviser’ and ‘Supervised Adviser’ may be used and called for industry feedback on the term by 17 August 2018.
…new advisers should complete 1800 hours of work and training
In the other paper, FASEA proposed that new advisers should complete 1800 hours of work and training split been 800 hours of education and training, and 1000 hours of work and supervised experience.
The Authority noted, “This is based on an approximate 1800 hour working year (48 weeks at 37.5 hours per week) and recognises that typical completion of an AQF 8 unit of study is 120 hours of part-time study”.
The paper added that the completion of formal education, including a FASEA recognised bridging course, would be considered for the 800 hours of training and education, as would any study to achieve a professional designation, or accreditation in specific financial products, or to meet the requirements for specialised financial advice.
New entrants would, however, be exempt from any requirements to complete Continuing Professional Development as “…the Standards Authority recognises that this is because provisional relevant providers will be actively engaged in work, training and education as part of achieving relevant provider status,” the paper stated.
FASEA stated the PY education and workplace training should cover the areas of technical competence, client care and practice, regulatory compliance and consumer protection, and professionalism and ethics, and a supervisor within each advice business would have the responsibility to ensure a new entrant completed their PY requirements.
