Financial planners say they do not support a Treasury proposal to introduce an “experienced” pathway for advisers, cautioning the recommendation may not achieve its intended aim of easing the cost of providing advice.

The Treasury proposal will remove the requirement for advisers to undertake any additional formal study to meet the mandatory education standards if they meet the defined “experienced” eligibility criteria as outlined in the consultation paper released in August.

Advisers will 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, the paper says.

Existing advisers who do not meet the “experienced” criteria but have been registered between 2016 and 2019 must have at most, an approved eight-unit graduate diploma or equivalent by January 1 2026.

However, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) says the proposals “risk” the professionalism journey that advice providers have been undertaking for more than a decade.

“While experience is an important factor in competence to provide a professional service to a consumer, education is also universally identified as a key component of professional competence,” FPA says in its submission.

“We believe unassessed experience alone is an insufficient foundation to meet the objectives of raising the minimum education requirements for professional financial advice providers and continuing to build consumer confidence in the profession.”

FPA says a majority of its members oppose the Treasury pathway proposal. A high proportion of FPA members have already made commitments to undertake further study based on the current requirements.

“The proposed pathway won’t bring those who have exited back, and as noted in our current survey, this won’t stop those who plan to retire over the next few years from retiring,” the FPA says.

Click here for the FPA submission.