Financial Planning Education and Regulatory Requirements: A Cross Country Comparison between Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and United States of America

Conflicted remuneration, corporate collapse, lack of disclosure and a range of unethical practices have served to undermine the reputation of financial advisers over the past thirty to forty years and impeded the recognition of financial planning as a profession. However, a range of education and regulatory reforms over the same period have assisted in the development of financial planning and attempted to lift the professional profile of financial advisers, particularly in the western world. This study includes a comparison of the education and regulatory requirements of four main countries: Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and United States of America to consider how education and regulation in these countries have attempted to mitigate wrongdoings of the past and contribute to the development of financial planning as a profession. A brief history of the education and regulation requirements for financial planning in each country is reviewed, along with reforms that were introduced to improve the quality of financial advice for consumers. The focus of education and regulatory requirements was found to differ across countries, with some countries focusing on disclosure and transparency, or licensing or remuneration structures and others requiring stringent education and qualification requirements or codifying the terms ‘financial adviser’ and ‘financial planner’ in legislation. Regulations outlining a fiduciary duty requirement for financial advisers were common across countries. While there is still no universal approach to the education and regulatory requirements for financial planning, there have been some recent developments which point towards the internationalisation of financial planning and the recognition of financial planning as a discipline it its own right. However, the complexity of education and regulation in the financial planning industry means that this process is likely to take some time and will require academics, educational and professional bodies, financial advisers, industry representatives and regulators to work together on a global scale for this to be realised

Factors influencing the motivation to pursue a career in financial planning

This study presents a conceptual model to examine the factors influencing career choice in financial planning. Informed by career choice theory, the study uses questionnaires and interviews of financial advisers and financial planning students in Australia to find that social learning through life experiences, along with the enjoyment of working with numbers and aspiration to help others are important factors influencing the choice to pursue a career in financial planning. In addition, respondents scored highest on the agreeableness scale of the ‘Big Five’ personality test. Contrary to popular media reports, results show that people choose f inancial planning as a career primarily because they want to help people. Findings also highlight the uniqueness of financial planning as a career that fulfils both agentic and communal goals which allows advisers to use their interest in numbers to help people. The study makes a valuable practical contribution to the development of financial planning by providing insights that may prove useful in recruiting the next generation of financial advisers. Our findings also have important implications for educators, regulators, and the profession more broadly. Further, it makes a theoretical contribution by providing a conceptual framework to aid in understanding the factors relevant to career choice, particularly in an emerging discipline such as financial planning where information on career choice is limited

Ethics and Professional Practice in Financial Planning

Ethics and Professional Practice in Financial Planning is a comprehensive resource that brings together different aspects of ethics that comprise compulsory education requirements for both existing and new entrants to financial planning. It discusses the application to financial planning of ethical development, theories and decision frameworks. Real-life scenarios, such as Storm Financial and other cases handled by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), illustrate the hard consequences when things go wrong and the role that process plays in ensuring and demonstrating ethical behaviour