The Financial Planning Association has called for clarity on proposed education standards for financial tax advisers.

It is concerned the Tax Practitioners Board’s (TPB) tax and commercial law course requirements will apply retrospectively.

“Existing planners and those currently studying financial planning courses may not be able to meet a requirement to have assessment tasks independently supervised if it was not required when the course was taken,” the FPA says in a submission to the TPB.

“This is outside of the control of the planner. The FPA recommends the TPB tax and commercial law course policy clearly state that the course assessment requirements do not apply to courses taken prior to the TPB requirements commencing.”

The association also wants topics covered in the law courses tailored to financial planners.

“The FPA supports a requirement that planners must have successfully completed a course that contains relevant taxation law topics at a level and depth appropriate to financial advice –as long as the study delivers knowledge and learning benefits applicable to the advice financial planners provide to clients.”

The association also calls for tort law to be removed from the commercial law course, arguing the definition in the TPB’s proposal is too vague.

“The FPA suggests the areas of negligence and misleading and deceptive conduct are key to the ethics training requirements covered in the tax law course requirement.

“Such topics should be taught in the context of ethics training. Including tort law as a specific topic outside of ethics training creates a duplication.”