Industry body blasts ‘discriminatory’ exam processes

“It was up to 65 per cent [failure rate] across some of the different firms, because the exam had two-thirds of the questions on insurance,” Ms Fox said.

“We have protested that with FASEA and said ‘please don’t do that again’. It skewed everything in terms of the pass rate because so much of the exam was on a topic that stockbrokers just do not get involved with.”

Ms Fox said the current educational framework did not take account of the multidisciplinary nature of the advice industry and was too general in its approval of degrees as well as its construction of exam questions.

“FASEA has a view that financial planning is the only form of financial advice and they’ve treated it as the core education, when in fact financial planning is itself a specialisation,” she said.

“So, stockbrokers, investment advisers, accountants, risk advisers have all struggled because their specialisations aren’t recognised by FASEA.

“That is also showing up in the education requirements where degrees that are most suitable for our industry, such as Bachelor of Commerce or Economics, are not approved degrees — the only degrees approved are about financial planning.”

Ms Fox said the standards authority had been needlessly heavy-handed in its approach to approving qualifications, and it was hoped the government could take a “more nuanced” interpretation when it took over FASEA’s standards-setting responsibilities later this year.

“At the moment, someone who graduates with a Bachelor of Finance from Sydney University is considered less qualified to work in the investment industry than someone with a Bachelor of Property majoring in Financial Planning from Central Queensland University,” she said.

“But when you look at the legislative instrument, it doesn’t specify financial planning — that particular focus is coming entirely from FASEA.

“We hope that Treasury will have a more nuanced view of the specialisations that exist within advice. Ultimately, we want clients to get the advice they are seeking and to know people have been properly qualified and educated in those specialisations.”