Institute urges advisers to be on top of their courses
Strategi Institute has launched a refreshed version of its online learning platform, Radar, which provides advisers with continuing professional development (CPD) courses - one of the key requirements of the Code of Conduct under the new legislation.
The relaunch includes a range of new features and improvements, with users benefiting from easier navigation, quicker access to content, enriched reporting and new interactive training plans, as well as options for larger companies to have an overview of the performance of their workforce. Strategi said this would make it easier for the larger FAPs to spot gaps in training, and to respond accordingly.
Strategi’s courses have a Category 1 NZQA ranking, and training is available for a range of professional services including advisers, lenders, lawyers and real estate agents.
Strategi Institute CEO Daniel Relf said that the platform has seen a significant adviser membership so far, and he expects demand to grow as advisers continue to work towards their CPD requirements in preparation for full licensing.
Read more: FMA sets goalposts for full license process
“The content we have on Radar is focused on the four key areas of financial advice - that is general insurance, life and health, residential property lending, and investments,” Relf said.
“We have some important articles across those four key strands, and our advisers have found those really useful so far.”
“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 explained.
“We have several thousand advisers already on Radar, and we’re expecting another few thousand to join over the coming months and next year, based on the changes that are happening within the legislation.”
When it comes to preparing for full licensing, Relf noted that the number of people applying for transitional licenses at the last minute was “phenomenal” - something he said the FMA will want to avoid with the full licensing stage, so getting education requirements in order as quickly as possible will be vital.
The FMA has given Class 1 and Class 2 advisers a target date of September 30, 2022, to apply for their full license, and Class 3 advisers have an earlier target date of June 30, 2022. Relf highlighted that the FMA had significantly increased its resources to deal with full license applications, but with just around 100 full licenses granted, it had not seen the expected volume coming in yet.
“If you look a the FSPR, the number of licenses given on that last day is phenomenal - it’s a huge number,” Relf said.
Read more: Full licensing “a fair bit more work than some anticipated”
“But people still need to be aware that compliance started from March 15 of this year, and it’s just that education piece that has a two-year safe harbour.”
“The FMA has said that the soft deadline for full FAP license applications will be September next year, and that’s because they have scaled up in their resources and haven’t seen the corresponding number of applications come through yet,” he explained.
“If you do the numbers, only a hundred or so applications have come through so far and have been approved, but there are 1,800 other FAPs out there. They now have around 12 months to go before they have to hand those in, and I think it’s all going to happen from February onwards at this stage.
“The FMA have had to signal these changes in order to get people to wake up.”
Advisers who had previously operated as RFAs would not have had any CPD requirements to deal with prior to March 2021, and Relf said that the Radar platform had been a great help to those who are still getting to grips with what they need to be doing.
He encouraged advisers who are finding the education side of things difficult to get in touch, and to see what learning options might suit them best.
“Radar provides ongoing CPD-based education, which is one of the key requirements for advisers and is required by the Code of Conduct,” he said.
“Advisers have to make sure that they have the right knowledge, competence and skill to continue giving advice, and contrary to AFAs, a lot of the RFAs haven’t had that requirement before. I think there’s still a lot of learning and adjustment to be done as people get to grips with the new compliance and education requirements.”
