AFA News 14 April 2022.  Queensland Nationals Senator Susan McDonald asked a number of questions of ASIC following the February 2022 Senate Estimates hearing, including a number of interesting questions on adviser numbers and age demographics.

Amongst the answers to Senator McDonald’s questions was the fact that 882 financial advisers have qualified for the extension until 30 September 2022 to pass the exam, for those advisers who had attempted the exam at least twice before the end of 2021.  This is a group of advisers who we will be focused on in 2022, as we look to support them to pass the exam before the deadline.  Please register here for our upcoming webinar on the exam.  We call on all advisers to assist this group in whatever way they can.

ASIC has also provided a split of advisers by age demographic as of 24 February 2022, which shows a good spread of ages, inclusive of nearly 1,000 advisers over the age of 65:

Age Category	No.	%
65 and over	986	6%
55 to 64 years	3,075	17%
40 to 54 years	8,328	48%
Under 40	4,980	28%
Unknown	123	1%
Total	17,492	100%

ASIC has also stated that they are currently undertaking a review of the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) to ensure that all advisers who had not passed the exam by 31 December 2021 and did not qualify for the extension until 30 September 2022, have been updated to reflect a “ceased” status.  ASIC has suggested that this review, might lead to a further reduction in adviser numbers on the FAR.

Please click here to view Senator McDonald’s questions and ASIC’s answers. Please register here for our Adviser exam webinar on Tuesday April 19.

Issued 14.04.2022. AFA Policy & Education Update

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