The SMSF Association is currently in the process of examining what impact the new Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) will have on its industry activities.
“Certainly the association has accepted that we have to respond to the proposed changes because it does impact significantly on the education offering that we provide to our members and to the industry generally as well,” SMSF Association head of technical Peter Hogan told the professional body’s NSW Sydney Local Community lunch yesterday.
Hogan pointed out it was critical to initiate this type of review because a large number of financial planners will be focusing their minimum educational standards over the next few years based on the guidelines formulated by FASEA.
“So we are looking again at what we are offering and we have undertaken with an external body a review of our education program, and we are looking, in the first instance, how we are currently offering education to our members and whether there are better ways for us to do it,” he said.
According to Hogan, all opinions on the best way to deliver education from the SMSF Association local communities would be taken into account during the process.
“There is no one template, of course, and every different local community is different in that sense, but we are very mindful that this is such an important part of what the association does and the opportunities for you to interact and also get CPD (continuing professional development) points that we are looking to see how we can more efficiently deliver meaningful education across a wide area,” he said.
In an effort to obtain a sense of what the FASEA guidelines might look like, the association has invited FASEA chief executive Deen Sanders to speak at the industry body’s 2018 National Conference to be held during February in Sydney.
“We are hopeful he might be able to give us a very broad overview of the ethics and the standards and the general direction of where they are going, even if there may not be a lot of detail at that time,” Hogan said.
