As part of our commitment to ensuring Australians have access to high quality, affordable financial advice, the Morrison Government today announced consultation on streamlining the education requirements for financial advisers.
After the passage of the Government's Better Advice Bill through Parliament, from 1 January 2022, the power to set education standards for financial advisers will transfer from the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) to the Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy, Senator the Hon Jane Hume. Consistent with the legislation, the Minister will simplify the minimum education requirements while ensuring high quality financial advice for consumers, achieving the intention of the FASEA reforms without micro-managing advisers, universities, students and businesses.
As part of this streamlining, the Government proposes to recognise the value of on-the-job experience through designating 10 years of experience, a good record and a tertiary level ethics subject as meeting the education requirements for existing financial advisers.
In addition, the Government has also today released for consultation the draft terms of reference for the Quality of Advice Review, which will consider how the regulatory framework could better enable the provision of high quality, accessible and affordable financial advice for retail investors.
In particular, the Quality of Advice Review aims to identify opportunities to streamline and simplify regulatory compliance obligations to reduce cost and remove duplication, recognising that costs of compliance by businesses are ultimately borne by consumers.
A policy paper seeking submissions on proposed education standards has been released and submissions will be invited from 4 January 2022 and close on 1 February 2022.
Submissions on the draft Terms of Reference for the Quality of Advice Review will close on 4 February 2022. More details on the consultation and the approach can also be found on the Treasury website.
