Adviser qualifications

Are all your financial advisers holding the right qualifications and can they demonstrate they are operating at the equivalent of the New Zealand Certificate in Financial Services (Level 5) Version 2? Now is the time to do a final check to ensure those enrolled on courses will have them completed on time and be ready to go on 16 March 2023.

Some FAPs are getting caught out by the following:

• Students believing they have until 16 March 2023 to complete assignments. Anyone working towards their level 5 qualification or an additional specialist strand must have final assignments lodged by 15 February 2023. This gives time to get the assignment marked, any rework completed then two weeks for NZQA to approve the qualification and have it showing on the national qualification register.
• Misreading of standard/strand completion certificates from some training providers leading FAPs to mistakenly think the adviser is qualified when in reality they have only partially completed their qualification. If you are unsure feel free to contact our team and we can quickly check the correct status of your advisers.
• Advisers who advise on more than one product type e.g. mortgages and life insurance need the Residential Property Lending Strand as well as the Life Disability and Health Strand. We are seeing many advisers who have not yet started to do the additional strand(s) to meet what they are advising on. They run the risk of not being able to advise on that product type if they have not completed the relevant strand on time.