Strategi Institute has urged advisers to make some headway on preparing for the full licensing process, particularly in the field of education and CPD - an area it says saw a huge last-minute rush at the beginning of the transitional licensing phase.
Commenting on the process at the beginning of March, executive director David Greenslade had expressed “serious concern” about the preparedness of advisers several business days before the regime was due to start, and noted that the firm was getting “heaps of calls and emails from advisers every day, asking questions that should have been asked 12 months ago.”
The Institute is now urging advisers not to repeat the same last-day rush with the full licensing process, and has rolled out a refreshed version of its online learning platform Radar - something it said would help it keep up with the increased demand for training from the sector.
CEO Daniel Relf said that the adviser sector still has some adjusting to do before full licensing, and noted the FMA’s recent release of a ‘soft deadline’ - something he said was likely put in place to avoid another last minute flurry of applications.
“I think that overall, there is still a lot of learning and adjustment to be done as people get to grips with the new ongoing compliance and education requirements,” Relf told Insurance Business.
“The FMA has already signalled that the number of new license applications hasn’t been to their expectations yet. Of the 1,800 or so Financial Advice Providers (FAPs), only about 100 have applied for their full license so far, and that goes to show that people are dragging their feet in this area a bit.”
“We may be facing a similar situation to what we saw when the transitional licensing regime kicked in on March 15, and the rush to get transitional licenses done,” Relf explained.
“I suspect that advisers are focused on other things at the moment, and the ongoing lockdown means they’re still in survival mode to some extent. So, I think there is going to be a huge realisation of the work that needs to be done for financial advisers, and a huge upswing in activity next year - both in the education piece, and the compliance piece.”
Despite the low levels of full licensing activity, Relf said that there have also been many advisers who have been very proactive with their requirements.
He urged advisers to make use of the relaunched Radar platform, which contains content tailored for various strands of advice, including insurance, property and investments.
It also includes some improvements on existing functions including simpler navigation, quicker access to content and new interactive training plans, which allow students to work in groups and interact as they go through the programme.
“Some advisers are actually doing really well,” Relf said.
“We shouldn’t discount the FAPs and advisers out there who are on the ball and highly compliant, and are already meeting the requirements of the new legislation. But right now, advisers are falling into three buckets - those who are really engaged, those who are just very busy right now doing other things, and those who just haven’t been focused on their compliance or education and have put their head in the sand a bit.”
Executive director David Greenslade said that solid, up to date training has become extremely important for advisers, and highlighted that failing to maintain the right education standards would have consequences in the full license regime.
“Quality training is more important than ever and the penalties for getting things wrong as an adviser or industry professional are far more severe,” Greenslade said.
“Strategi Institute’s courses are developed by the industry, for the industry, and the institute has a ranking as an NZQA ‘Category 1’ education organisation – the highest rating available from NZQA.
“Radar is our ‘jewel in the crown’ and we will continue to invest in and grow the platform over the years to come.”
Radar’s content is all CPD-based, and it focuses on the four key financial advice areas of general insurance, life and health, residential property lending and investment.
Relf said he expects interest in the platform to grow further over the next few months, as advisers increasingly look at getting their training requirements up to scratch.
“The platform has been around for some time, but we’ve relaunched it to give it a better, more intuitive user experience, and we’ve added some new content specifically for the new regime,” he said.
“We have several thousand advisers already on Radar, and we’re expecting another few thousand to join over the coming months and over the next year, based on the changes that are happening with the legislation.”
