Speaking at the Boutique Financial Planning Principals Group (BFP) conference in Brisbane last week, Financial Planning Association general manager for policy and government relations, Dante De Gori, said the removal of the ASIC register is causing “a lot of concern” in the industry.
The decision to scrap the register has effectively shifted the responsibility to check advisers’ qualifications out of ASIC’s hands and into the domain of licence holders, said Mr De Gori.
“ASIC are basically wiping their hands and saying 'we don't want to be in this space' – they want to get rid of it. But they're not providing a viable alternative,” he said.
As a result, licensees are currently spending a disproportionate amount of time trying to check their advisers’ qualifications to determine whether they comply with the language in RG146, said Mr De Gori.
“A lot of the bigger institutions are making their advisers redo courses because there is no way they can verify that the original course that was done was RG146 compliant,” he said.
For Mr De Gori, the best solution to the problem would be a register of individual advisers that confirms whether or not they have met the minimum training requirements.
“Once you have satisfied your entry qualifications you don't have to re-satisfy them every time you change jobs or change licensees or employees,” he said.
“The only thing that your licensee or your new employer should be concerned about is if you're maintaining your continuing professional development.”
ASIC is currently consulting the industry in regards to the replacement for RG146.
