The 60/40 adviser qualifications split
There is almost a 60/40 split between advisers on the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) who have an approved degree and those who are relying on the experience pathway.
The latest assessment from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission reveals that as of 28 May, of the 15,610 relevant providers on the FAR, AFS licensees have notified ASIC that 6,426 relevant providers hold an approved degree or qualification and 4,580 are relying on the experienced provider pathway.
ASIC said the remaining 4,604 relevant providers have yet to meet the qualifications standard. Of this cohort, 1,844 may be eligible for the experienced provider pathway, but their AFS licensees are yet to notify ASIC.
In doing so, ASIC urged licensees to get their act together in circumstances where its most recent spot check of the FAR revealed they were falling short.
ASIC said some of the errors identified include:
- instances where relevant providers have declared they are relying on the experienced provider pathway when they do not appear eligible,
- relevant providers whose qualifications have been marked as going toward meeting the qualifications standard when the course has not yet been completed or is not an approved course of study, and
- information about a relevant provider’s authorisation history, including periods of time when they were not a relevant provider.
The regulator said it was a serious offence to knowingly provide false or misleading information to ASIC or to fail to take reasonable steps to ensure the information is true and correct.
It said it would continue to monitor information on the FAR in the lead-up to January, next year, and will consider further regulatory responses if required.
“After 1 January 2026, ASIC will undertake a compliance program, relying on records on the Financial Advisers Register to determine if relevant providers remain authorised to provide personal advice to retail clients,” it said.
Given FARSEA rules have changed multiple times as the morons in Canberra continue to stuff it up.
Would seem easier & much cheaper (time costs & course costs) for many advisers to tick the experienced pathway box than having to do the stupid Ethics FARSEA course to be education qualified.
So many Advisers going that option will have relevant degrees (Economics, Commerce, etc) plus Diploma Fin Plan, etc thus are already very well educated and also experienced.
Now the next Stupid education requirements are the TPB / ASIC extra course qualifications to remain to be a Tax Financial Adviser also for 1/1/26.
There is still 7 months to go. Many advisers are still completing degrees and bridging courses. Many advisers who are eligible for the experience exemption may not ultimately use it. There is no requirement for advisers to inform their licensee when or how they meet the 1 Jan 2026 standards prior to then. It is only a requirement for licensees to update FAR with that information within 30 days of being officially informed by the adviser. There is a cost and admin overhead to update ASIC records, so there is an incentive to bulk up changes and do them as late as possible.
By all means advisers and licensees should be preparing for 1 Jan 2026. But it is inappropriate to read too much into the FAR data before Feb 2026.
There is also an incentive for advisers to complete their qualifications as late as possible. Corrupt FASEA unfairly deemed many older qualifications “out of date” and forced advisers to purchase new ones, mostly of inferior quality.
If another bunch of corrupt bureaucrats is given inappropriate power in the future, a Grad Dip completed in Dec 2025 is far less likely to be deemed worthless than one completed in 2018.
So instead of ASIC contacting those licencee’s to say you may have made a geunine mistake, and “Adviser X dosen’t appear to meet Y”, they’re just sitting there waiting…..waiting to exterminate those Advisers, shut down the Licencee or issue some lodgement fine.
Very tpyical of ASIC always looking at any opportunity to exterminate the Adviser.
I see a mass exodus come December unfortunately ! And for those that don’t leave a general advice career only from then on
It’s been a long term plan by Hovernment and ASIC to eventually eliminate the Financual adviser from the equation and push the client to the Industry Funds not just for basic advice and risk cover but now with the advent of retirement planning on offer it’s hard to see this going any other way
Well done you idiots I can hardly wait to see how this mess unfolds
Are there really that many advisers who don’t meet the experience requirements, and haven’t bothered getting FASEA qualifications? Surely most advisers will get past December via one of those two pathways.
ASIC are a regulator and not your mum. take some responsibility