Big spike in 2023 fin planning degree enrolments

Enrolments for Kaplan Professional’s post-graduate financial planning degrees are at their highest level since late 2021 – when the Federal Government first proposed the introduction of an ‘experience pathway’ for long-serving advisers – the vocational education provider has revealed.

According to Kaplan, the growth in enrolments comes despite many advisers otherwise qualifying for the proposed 10-year ‘experience pathway’ exemption, with new entrants to its higher education course also enrolling “in strong numbers”, it said.

This, Kaplan said, “continues an upward trend of enrolments” to its programs over three preceding intakes in 2022. Kaplan offers six annual intake periods (each running for 12 weeks) throughout the year.

Nearly 400 advisers commenced postgraduate financial planning studies for the first time with Kaplan Professional, one the planning sector’s leading education providers; over 70% of these enrolments were in its Master of Financial Planning or Graduate Diploma of Financial Planning courses.

A little more than 100 individuals enrolled in its standalone Ethics bridging course – a requirement for financial planners who qualify through the proposed experience pathway.

The proposed experience pathway allows financial advisers who have 10 or more years full-time experience in the industry (and hold a clean disciplinary record) to continue to provide financial advice, with the provision that they complete a tertiary-level Code of Ethics unit.

Under the proposed rules, planners (including existing providers or new entrants) who do not meet these requirements must attain a bachelor’s degree or higher to ply their trade in Australia.

Kaplan notes that enrolments for its Master of Financial Planning degree “are at their highest levels ever”, with a trend “towards achieving full qualifications instead of completing standalone bridging courses”.

Enrolments in specialist electives, such as Aged Care, SMSF Regulation and Taxation, Business Planning and Practice Management and Derivatives in Financial Planning, have also “more than doubled”, it said.

Based on its own calculations, Kaplan said that around 50 per cent of advisers who have completed or are currently completing postgraduate financial planning studies with the education provider would qualify for the proposed 10-year exemption.

“We applaud those advisers who have positively taken on the challenge of postgraduate financial planning studies, considering the large majority of them are working full time, running businesses and supporting their families, said Kaplan Professional chief executive Brian Knight.

“The theme of just getting on with it regardless of whether or not they meet the proposed 10-year exemption seems to be a consistent one.”

Knight added that “licensees are also encouraging paraplanners and support staff to upskill with a view to potentially filling gaps in the industry.”

He notes that Kaplan students’ ability to attain the Financial Planning Association of Australia’s Certified Financial Planner® and SMSF Association’s SMSF Specialist Advisor™ designations concurrently with their masters degree is “incredibly attractive to advisers who want to go further than the graduate diploma”.