The Federal Government is seeking feedback until May 3 on draft legislation to reform financial adviser education standards.

The new legislation would deem an adviser to have met education requirements if they have a decade of experience providing advice and no disciplinary action on the Financial Advisers Register. They must still pass the financial adviser exam.

The amendments would also address cases where would‑be advisers currently fail to meet the education standards for technical reasons. New entrants could apply to the minister to have their degree recognised, and education providers could confirm a person has completed the requirements of an approved degree.

“We encourage all interested parties to provide feedback on the draft legislation,” the government said.

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones says more than 10,000 financial advisers have left the industry in response to new standards, which include professional qualifications.

"This has pushed some experienced advisers, with no history of misconduct, out of the industry, reducing access to advice,” Mr Jones said.

Feedback has highlighted that some individuals fail to meet the education standards for “purely technical reasons”, despite completing the substance of an approved degree, he says.

The new legislation would increase the flexibility of the degree approval process by allowing domestic qualification applications to the minister and the ability for education providers to confirm that a person has completed the requirements in an approved degree.

“The government is committed to reviewing the education settings for new entrants and not creating unnecessary barriers to entry, ensuring financial advice remains a career of choice,” Mr Jones said.

Last month, the Advisers Association called for a co-ordinated approach to address meeting new education requirements and said the profession should take a much more proactive role.

Many have passed the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) exam but are not willing or able to commit to the further education requirements that would allow them to stay on in the profession, it said.

“Highly experienced advisers should be allowed to continue to practise without having to meet the new education requirements potentially until 2035, subject to certain criteria,” CEO Neil Macdonald said.

Criteria could include passing a competency assessment at Australian Qualifications Framework level 7 or above, he said.

Last August a Treasury consultation paper on adviser professional standards recommended that advisers should not need to have tertiary education if they already have 10 years’ full-time equivalent experience in Australia between 2004 and 2019, hold a clean disciplinary record and have passed the financial adviser exam.

Existing advisers who do not meet the criteria to be recognised as “experienced” will need to have an approved eight-unit graduate diploma or equivalent by 2026.

Submissions should be emailed to FinancialAdvice@treasury.gov.au. See submission guidelines here.