Financial Planning Association (FPA) members will be excused from providing fee renewal notices every two years if they sign up to the body’s Professional Ongoing Fees Code.

The code has been approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and will be available to certified financial planners and associate financial planners.

Signatories can provide ongoing fee renewal notices at a schedule agreed with the client, but the interval cannot exceed three years.

It marks the first time ASIC has used its powers to approve a code.

“Industry and professional codes have an important role to play in lifting the standards of conduct in the financial services sector,” FPA CEO Dante De Gori said.

“To gain ASIC approval, codes must adopt higher standards than required by law, or in the case of an opt-in code replace the need for compliance with a legal requirement, and represent a benefit to consumers.”

If an FPA member breaches the code, it will lose its relief from the requirements.

“Importantly, any organisation proposing a code must also have the means and resources to hold code subscribers accountable,” Mr De Gori said. “The FPA has developed appropriate monitoring arrangements, which will be overseen by an independent code administrator.”