SPAA chief executive Andrea Slattery said it was reassuring the minister for finance, Senator Mathias Cormann, reiterated the government’s decision to have a register in place by March 2015, and that it must include advisers’ qualifications and professional association membership.
“It has always been SPAA’s contention that for a register to fully benefit consumers, they must be able to identify advisers who have the requisite skills and professionalism,” said Ms Slattery.
An obvious benchmark, she said, would be for consumers to be able to determine what qualifications and professional association membership an adviser has as these two areas are critical to quality financial advice.
“Only when a register includes all the relevant information will consumers feel confident they are getting the best possible advice,” she said.
The register record of educational qualifications and association membership, she said, will encourage advisers to improve their qualifications and become professional members of the relevant associations.
“The ongoing lifting of professionalism in financial advice greatly depends on increasing educational standards and improving the personal accountability of financial advisers,” she said.
I fully support this idea as to many advisor’s mislead clients as to what they are actually qualified and competent to advise on (AFSL restrictions), property & credit is a classic example.
For heavens sake! How many more ‘registers’ do we need. Tax agents, auditors, membership of professional bodies the list goes on. Details of education from 40 years ago when SMSF weren’t even thought of is relevant how?