ASIC is reminding financial advisers to enrol for the final adviser exam sitting ahead of 1 October 2022 extension deadline.
Former financial services minister Jane Hume announced last year that advisers who failed the FASEA exam twice before the end of 2021 would get an extension for nine months into 2022. ASIC took over the management of the exam this year after FASEA was wound down.
Enrolments for this cycle close at 11.59pm on Tuesday 12 July, 2022. The exam will be held from Thursday 28 July to Monday 1 August, 2022.
If those advisers do not pass the July sitting, they will need to stop providing personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products from 1 October 2022.
Financial advisers who lose their status as an existing provider will be treated as a new financial adviser and will need to the same educational requirements as other new entrants before being re-authorised.
How many will play?
Research from Wealth Data found almost 1,000 advisers on the FAR had yet to pass the exam and the firm’s director Colin Williams expects most won’t attempt to sit the July deadline.
Some 318 candidates have passed the two exams held this year; 108 in January and 212 in May.
Last July, Hume said the extension wasn’t about adviser retention.
“It’s about allowing those who have made a concerted effort to take the exam but whose preparation may have been interrupted by ongoing Covid-19 disruptions to have a clearer run at the exam in 2022,” Hume said.
Data from Advisers Ratings found the extension wasn’t a popular move with a majority believing advisers who didn’t pass the exam before the end of 2021 should not be allowed to provide advice this year.
