Don Trapnell

Under the Government’s draft professional standards for advisers, risk advisers should have a speciality education stream that relates specifically to life insurance and should also have any existing knowledge and experience formally recognised.

Responding to the Government’s recent release of exposure draft legislation on the measures to raise education, training and ethical standards for financial advisers, Synchron Director, Don Trapnell said risk advisers are not general practitioners, they are specialists and each financial advice specialization should have its own education and professionalism stream.

“Financial advisers should be able to elect to study a specialist stream, just as students of any discipline can choose to specialize in a particular area,” he said. “In the case of risk specialists, this would of course mean specializing in life insurance.”

Mr Trapnell also argued that existing, long-term risk advisers should be provided with an appropriate education pathway that recognizes their extensive life insurance knowledge and experience and their unique set of client relationship skills.

“The average age of Synchron advisers is 43. These people understand what they need to do in order to meet changing education requirements. But we need to also ensure that older, highly-experienced advisers are provided with an appropriate professional pathway that recognizes their extensive knowledge, experience and expertise so that they can continue to provide the intricate insurance advice and deep emotional support their clients need,” he said.

The Government has announced an independent industry standard setting body will be established and operational from 1 July 2016, and that it will develop and set education standards, professional year requirements, continuing professional development requirements and develop a comprehensive code of ethics for financial advisers.

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