RG 146 Licensing: Training of financial product advisers

Issued July 2012

This guide is for:

advisers (i.e. Australian financial services (AFS) licensees and representatives who provide financial product advice to retail clients), and

providers of training and education for advisers.

This guide sets out minimum training standards that apply to advisers and how advisers can meet these training standards.

Editor’s note 1:

Sections D and E of this guide remain under review, effective 24 September 2012. Further guidance on how to comply with these training standards in the interim can be found in media release 13-149MR

ASIC consults on enhancements to training standards (24 June 2013), which sets out our no-action position on the ASIC Training Register, and here which sets out further information about the ASIC Training Register.

See also:

CP 212

Licensing: Training of financial product advisers - Updates to RG 146

CP 215

Assessment and approval of training courses for financial product advisers - Update to RG 146 and Media release 13-219MR

ASIC consults on a proposed replacement to the Training Register

Editor’s note 2
:

In March 2017, the
Corporations Amendment (Professional Standards of Financial Advisers) Act 2017 commenced and introduced reforms to the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act) to raise the education, training and ethical standards of financial advisers (the ‘professional standards reforms’).

Since 1 January 2019, the professional standards reforms apply to financial advisers who provide personal advice on relevant financial products to retail clients (‘relevant providers’): see How the reforms affect you for more information.

‘Relevant financial products’ are financial products other than basic banking products, general insurance products and/or consumer credit insurance: see section 910A of the Corporations Act.

Given that the professional standards reforms apply to relevant providers (i.e. existing, new or provisional financial advisers), the training standards in RG 146 no longer apply to relevant providers.

RG 146 continues to apply to people who provide:

general advice,

personal advice on basic banking products, general insurance and/or consumer credit insurance, and

individuals who provide financial product advice in relation to a time-sharing scheme.

RG 146 refers to ‘Tier 1 products’ and ‘Tier 2 products’. As a result of the professional standards reforms, ASIC considers, in general, that:

Tier 1 products are relevant financial products, and

Tier 2 products are financial products that are not relevant financial products (i.e. basic banking products, general insurance products and/or consumer credit insurance, and time-sharing schemes).

Download RG 146 (PDF 451 KB)