FAAA airs concerns over ABS’ ‘financial adviser’ classifications

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist

29 April 2026

The Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) has responded to an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) consultation on planned updates to the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) in 2027, taking issue with the accuracy of the current descriptions of the two ‘financial adviser’ occupations.

In its submission signed by General Manager, Policy, Advocacy and Standards, Phil Anderson, the association notes that the descriptions for the two current occupations of ‘financial adviser’ (labelled 2121 and 212131) do not “separately identify different types of financial advisers that can be licenced under the Corporations Act, or accurately describe the skill level for financial advisers to be legally licensed”.

As such, the association has urged for the ‘financial adviser’ (2121) occupation to be amended to also include retail client financial adviser’ (212131) and ‘wholesale client financial adviser’ (212132).

The FAAA said its concerns relate mainly to the differences between retail and wholesale client financial advisers across educational standards, professional standards and regulatory requirements, leaving room for inconsistencies among government departments and policy decisions, as well as inaccuracies in the reporting of the state of the adviser market.

“Very different obligations apply in terms of the education standard and the regulatory requirements that these two types of advisers must meet in the provision of financial advice,” Anderson said in the FAAA’s submission.

“Financial advisers, who are authorised to provide personal financial product advice to retail clients, need to provide disclosure documents (Financial Services Guide, Statement of Advice, Product Disclosure Statement), comply with the Best Interests Duty, comply with a Code of Ethics, avoid the receipt of conflicted remuneration, [be registered on the ASIC Financial Adviser Register (FAR)] and be a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

“None of these obligations apply to financial advisers who only provide advice to wholesale clients.

“As there are significant difference in the provisions in the law for minimum education and ongoing professional standards/regulatory obligations between ‘retail client financial advisers’ and ‘wholesale client only financial advisers’, ensuring this difference is appropriately and separately identified through different types of ‘financial advisers’ in the OSCA is critical to ensuring the accuracy of data sets that rely on the occupation classifications.”

The recommendations from the association to further amend the OSCA listings for ‘financial adviser’ come after the system replaced its earlier iteration, the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), back in 2024 – which also included an update to the occupation description of ‘financial adviser’ “to more closely reflect the current legal requirements to practice in the profession”.

The FAAA also noted that the skill level information attached to the ‘financial adviser’ occupations should also be updated accordingly “to reflect the legal requirements”, with skill level 1: Bachelor Degree or higher qualification applied to ‘retail client financial adviser’ (212131) and skill level 2: Diploma or higher qualification applied to ‘wholesale client financial adviser’ (212132).