A former president of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA), Dr Jim Taggart, OAM, has been appointed as the first chair of Mentor Education and has thrown his support behind the group’s push for advisers to study fully fledged planning courses.
Taggart, who was AFA President from late 2008 to late 2010, is already involved in education as an Adjunct Professor at both Western Sydney and Notre Dame Universities providing advice on undergraduate and post graduate courses and on research methods in business, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Taggart said he was pleased to chair the group which was growing through the development and delivery of innovative programs which he described as the “…the next generation of quality courses and degrees”.
“I also applaud Mentor Education for so insightfully entering the debate on educational qualifications for financial advisers. Its considered position on the need for fully-fledged 24-subject financial planning degree vis-à-vis so-called ‘degree equivalents’ and ‘hybrid degrees’ is one I strongly support,” Taggart said.
His comments echo those of Mentor Education, managing director Mark Sinclair who recently claimed that professional designations and non-financial advice specific degrees were not appropriate educational standards for financial advisers.
Taggart is also well known for establishing the Taggart Group in 1987 which he built into a broad-service financial services provider with 5000 clients as a well as winning the AFA’s Financial Adviser of the Year Award in 2005.
