Submission – Education reform for financial advisers

The Super Members Council (SMC) welcomes the Treasury consultation on proposed reforms to financial adviser education requirements. SMC supports considered reforms that make professional pathways clearer and more accessible, while always maintaining strong professional standards. These proposed reforms are important to increase the supply of affordable quality financial advice from qualified financial advisers. However, they address just one element of that vast ‘advice gap’ that frustrates millions of everyday Australians while leaving affordability and delivery model gaps unfixed – solely tackling the narrow supply pipeline for qualified advisers who deliver comprehensive advice.

While this proposed reform is one important step, simply widening education requirements for entry to the advice profession alone will not close this vast advice gap, nor deliver the complete set of strong safeguards and protections that all consumers deserve irrespective of whether they have the means to pay for comprehensive financial advice. These proposed changes should be advanced simultaneously with Tranche 2 of the crucial Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms, which are an urgent consumer safety priority. DBFO’s second tranche of reforms will expand access to safe, affordable super and retirement advice delivered within tightly regulated frameworks, without exposure to conflicted selling models that thrive in an advice vacuum.