A financial services education chief has called for ASIC to take control of the assessment of RG 146 training and set up a national, external exam for financial planners.
Registered training authorities (RTO) and education providers should not be assessing their own training, according to Pinnacle Financial Services Academy managing director John Prowse.
“The industry would be great if the diploma training was the RG 146 standard and there was proper enforcement of that standard, which could be achieved without having to micro-regulate all the providers like ourselves if there is an external assessment conducted by ASIC,” Prowse said.
“If we were teaching everybody towards an ASIC exam then obviously we would not be able to operate on eight-day courses because every graduate would fail that exam.”
This approach would stop fast-track education providers handing out RG 146 diplomas to financial planning students, Prowse said.
“People trust financial planners with all their money when the last 30-40 years of their life might depend on the quality of advice, and we’re signing off advisers on a fortnight’s training,” he said.
FPA deputy chief executive Deen Sanders said ASIC taking responsibility for a national exam was one potential solution among many that should be considered.
“The FPA has called for in its education white paper the idea of an objective and measurable assessment process to build confidence in entry-level education for financial planners,” Sanders said.
