The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has removed the ability for 26 advisers to give advice after finding they had not disclosed whether they met the qualification standard to do so.
The corporate regulator made the discovery as part of a review of practitioner records on the Financial Advisers Register (FAR) it conducted following a 1 January 2026 deadline for advisers and their Australian financial services (AFS) licensees to disclose their compliance with the qualifications standard.
The review focused on those who did not have any qualifications or training courses listed that met the standard, finding 132 individuals lacked adequate information and, in some cases, only listed the mandatory financial adviser exam as going toward meeting it.
ASIC stated after the review and intervention with the 82 AFS licensees that authorised the 132 practitioners, 106 records on the FAR were updated to reflect they had met the qualifications standard, while 26 advisers had their authorisation to give personal advice to retail clients removed.
The obligation to ensure advisers’ details were correct on the FAR was a responsibility of AFS licensees, according to ASIC, which noted licensees and advisers had to review information recorded on the FAR to ensure it reflected how the latter met the qualifications standard.
“In particular, AFS licensees and relevant providers should check the financial adviser exam has not been incorrectly marked as going toward meeting the qualifications standard, check all qualifications or training courses that go toward the relevant provider meeting the qualifications standard have been marked as such and ensure the relevant provider is eligible to rely on the experienced provider pathway before lodging an experienced provider notification with ASIC.”
The figure revealed by the review is a marked decrease from late last year when ASIC stated on 1 December that 15 per cent of all advisers on the FAR had yet to provide their education qualifications to the regulator.
In related news, ASIC has released the results of the most recent financial adviser exam, held in June, noting 150 of 209 people (71.7 per cent) who sat it passed.
Of the total number of people who sat the exam, 137 did so for the first time and of that cohort 104, or 75.9 per cent, passed.
This is the thirty-third exam conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research on behalf of the regulator and the next will take place on 20 August.
In total, 22,748 individuals have sat the exam, of which 21,113 (92.8 per cent) have passed, demonstrating they have the skills to apply their knowledge of advice construction, ethics and legal requirements to the practical scenarios tested in the exam.
Jason Spits
SENIOR JOURNALIST
Jason is a senior journalist with Benchmark Media and writes for the selfmanagedsuper website and magazine and smstrusteenews website. He has covered financial services since 1999 and has written about life insurance, superannuation, investment management and financial advice, in both a freelance and in-house capacity, and also did a brief stint as a media manager for an industry association. He has been the editor of trade titles Money Management and Financial Standard, and was most recently senior journalist with life insurance title Riskinfo.
Articles by Jason