FPA members who start the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) program after January 1 this year will have their study counted as an Australian tax law subject by the Tax Practitioners Board.
They will only need to complete an additional course in commercial law before they are able to re-register with TPB.
“We’ve been talking to the Tax Practitioners Board about the CFP program for the last few months,” says Benjamin Marshan, head of policy for the FPA.
“And so for anybody who has entered into the CFP program and has completed CFP 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 since 1 January 2016, the TPB has approved our CFP program as meeting the tax law subject.
“Those people won’t have to go and do an additional piece of study against an Australian tax law subject. We’re very happy and proud and excited that we’ve managed to get the CFP program recognised by the TPB as meeting those requirements.”
Marshan said that “if you’re a licensee and you need to get someone registered going forward, the CFP program is a great way for them to a) be a CFP, and show that professionalism; but b) tick off that box with the TPB that they’re able to register, and meet those registration requirements against that tax law subject”.
“Therefore they only have to go and do one more tax law subject in commercial law.”
FPA members who started their CFP study before January 1, 2016, won’t have their study approved by the TPB.
In a statement the chief executive officer of the FPA, Dante De Gori, said recognition from the TPB is another significant win for the FPA and its members.
“For CFP professionals who do not meet the experience requirements, this will mean that they are only required to complete the Commercial Law course to re-register with the TPB and continue to provide tax (financial) advice,” he said.
“We are delighted to have secured this for our members.”
De Gori also re-confirmed that FPA voting members who do meet the experience requirements (six years’ full-time experience in the past eight years) are eligible to re-register without needing to complete any further studies.
“For FPA members who have not yet renewed their TPB registration, we encourage you to check the TPB website for when your registration expires, as this may be as soon as 31 July 2017,” de Gori said.
