news
campusreview.com.au
Call for financial
services degree
Training firm argues that standalone bachelor
program would improve standards.
A
major financial services educator wants the beleaguered
financial planning industry to have its own degree, to help
tighten up standards in the sector.
Mentor Education Group, which styles itself as Australia’s largest
privately owned financial services training company, welcomes
federal government initiatives to enhance the academic qualifications
of financial planners, but also calls for the field to have its own
standalone, 24-subject, bachelor of financial planning. University
financial planning qualifications are generally part of hybrid degrees,
usually alongside a bachelor of commerce or accounting.
These are insufficient, Mentor has said, because such
qualifications allocate only 12 subjects to the field. Furthermore, a
master’s of financial planning – while it may sound good – is also
inappropriate, Mentor argues, as it has only 12 subjects as well.
In short, Mentor argues that a stand-alone degree is necessary
for those aspiring to be holistic financial planners. It also wants
degree alternatives – such as industry association four-subject
post-nominals – not to be an option. For specialised financial
planners offering advice only in their field, however, a 12-subject
qualification is sufficient, Mentor says.
“You need 24 subjects because to be a holistic financial planner
you need subjects [covering] self-managed super funds, margin
lending, aged care, and a whole range of subjects,” explained
Dr Mark Sinclair, founder and principal of Mentor. “But it’d be
inappropriate to ask an accountant who just provides advice in
self-managed super funds and self-evaluation to do a whole degree
of 24 subjects relating to holistic financial planning, because that’s
not the area they’re in.”
Sinclair argued that 24-subject stand-alone degrees would raise
a new and better standard for financial planners in an industry that
has been rocked by scandal and unethical practice. n
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