The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has drawn up a 10-point plan for improving the quality of financial advice.

Some points have been raised before, such as restricting use of the terms “financial planner” or “adviser” under the Corporations Act.

The FPA has now added more detail on steps advisers would need to take to obtain a legally registered use of the term.

They include belonging to a body approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), holding a relevant degree and having three years’ experience with continuing professional development.

The plan also calls for an education working group to lift standards.

The FPA wants tighter controls on general advice, with the term renamed general or product information and limited to providing factual information.

Commissions would also be banned from general advice once the term is legally defined.

Some of the recommendations stem from debates and committee reports on the Future of Financial Advice legislation over the past four years.

They include ASIC maintaining a register of all financial advisers who give personal advice and having the power to suspend advisers suspected of material and systemic breaches.

The FPA also wants advice made tax-deductible.

“In these last days of debate over the final form of FOFA, it is time to go to the next step on behalf of all Australians and the emerging profession of financial planning,” FPA CEO Mark Rantall said.