The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has warned that around 20 per cent of financial advisers have yet to show they meet the qualification standards necessary to provide advice after 31 December.
The regulator stated a review of information on its Financial Advisers Register (FAR) found 3459 advisers out of the 15,432 listed, or 22.4 per cent, had yet to meet the standard, and noted 1371 advisers may be eligible for the experienced provider pathway but their Australian financial services (AFS) licensee had yet to make a notification acknowledging this fact.
According to its FAR analysis, of the 11,973 advisers whose AFS licensees have notified ASIC of their qualification, 7081 hold an approved degree or qualification, 3966 are relying on the experienced provider pathway, and 926 holding an approved degree or qualification and are relying on the experienced provider pathway.
Under rules in place since 1 January 2019 financial advisers are required to meet professional standards to provide personal advice including the completion of an approved degree or qualification, or recognition of prior education and experience under the experienced provider pathway.
Financial advisers who are currently working in the sector have until the start of 2026 to meet the qualifications standard stipulated in the Corporations Act 2001 to continue providing services to retail clients on relevant financial products from that date.
“Financial advisers should immediately review the accuracy of their information on the Financial Advisers Register if they intend to continue providing personal advice to retail clients from 1 January 2026,” ASIC said.
“Further, unless exempt, existing providers have until 31 December 2025 to complete specified courses in commercial law and taxation law to be able to provide tax (financial) advice services to retail clients for relevant financial products from 1 January 2026.”
ASIC added advisers cannot update their own FAR details and must request their AFS licensees to report any changes.
To assist them in determining whether their information was correct the register had received an update to information regarding when a practitioner had passed the mandatory adviser exam, qualifications marked as going towards meeting the qualifications standard, and whether the AFS licensee had told notified ASIC an adviser was relying on the experienced provider pathway.
The warning to act follows a previous call to action on 3 June when ASIC noted 4604 advisers had yet to meet the qualifications standard which was a marked change from its initial alert on this issue in May when around 12,000 practitioners had not updated their FAR records.
