The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has released the seven submissions it has made to the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) during the year.

They include recent submissions covering professional development, training supervision requirements, foreign qualifications and the proposed title granted to advisers in training.

The seven FASEA consultation papers resulted in more than 7000 responses from members, the FPA says.

In its submission on professional development, the association calls on FASEA to restrict continuous professional development requirements to 30 hours, rather than the proposed 50 hours.

Some 60% of the financial advisers who responded to an FPA survey said 50 hours was not appropriate.

Thirty hours would be an increase for many in the industry, and the figure is in line with the minimum requirement that generally applies in other industry associations.

The FPA also encourages FASEA to take a practical approach to training and supervision for new advisers, so as not to increase costs for small adviser practices and create disincentives to hiring new advisers.

It also rejected a proposal that the year of training and supervision should include 800 hours of formal education, saying it completely ignores the fact that advisers have already completed a degree as part of FASEA’s minimum education standards.

In its submission regarding the proposed title granted to advisers in training, the FPA noted that its members thought the term “provisional financial adviser” implies a lack of training, competency and education, making a misleading association with P plate drivers.

It suggested instead the terms “supervised financial adviser/planner” or “professional year financial adviser”.

The FPA will launch a suite of tools and information later this year to guide members through the education pathway, understanding study credits, and exam preparation.