ASIC will take over administration of the financial adviser exam from the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) from 1 January 2022 following the commencement of the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal commission Response – Better Advice) Act 2021 (the Act).

The first exam sitting of 2022 will be held from 17 February until 21 February 2022. Enrolments for this sitting will be open from 10 January 2022 and close on 28 January 2022. ASIC will publish further details about the process for enrolments soon.

Financial adviser exam

The dates for the first exam sitting of 2022 are as follows:

To facilitate the administration of the exam, ASIC has entered into a contract with the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). ACER assisted FASEA with the administration of the exam and will continue to assist ASIC with administering the exam through 2022.

We are working with ACER to finalise Sitting 17, Sitting 18, and Sitting 19 of the financial adviser exam for the remainder of 2022. Including the February sitting, there will be three financial adviser exam sittings taking place before 30 September 2022.

During 2022, examinees sitting the first three exams can choose to sit the exam in an exam centre or through remote proctoring. From 1 October 2022, exams will only be available via remote proctoring.

Re-mark arrangements for the November 2021 exam

Candidates who sat the exam in November 2021 may request a re-mark of their written responses if they do not pass the exam. Applications for a re-mark will be due by 31 December 2021. There are no extensions available for this deadline. Results from the re-mark will be released by ACER in January 2022.

You can contact ACER at faexam@acer.org regarding any queries about booking and sitting the exam, and to request a re-mark of the written response questions. For further information, refer to the Candidate Information Booklet which is accessible through the ACER portal for the exam

ASIC support

ASIC will soon be publishing guidance and resources previously hosted by FASEA.

This includes information about the exam policy, how remote proctoring works, how to prepare for the exam, FASEA’s practice questions guidance for candidates, and FAQs on the financial adviser exam. We will also release information on the eligibility of new financial advisers and foreign existing advisers to sit the exam. All of this information will be available on the ASIC website soon.

For details about the obligation of financial advisers to pass the financial adviser exam, refer to Information Sheet 260 FAQs: Timeframe for passing the financial adviser exam (INFO 260).

Questions about the financial adviser exam should be directed to ASIC’s Customer Contact Centre, available under our contact us section. ASIC’s Customer Contact Centre will be closed over the Christmas break from 24 December 2021 to 4 January 2022.

ASIC will be sharing important information about the steps Australian financial services licensees should take for financial advisers yet to pass the exam, including those financial advisers who have requested a re-mark of their November 2021 exam, in the coming days. ASIC publishes information relevant to financial advisers on our new Financial Adviser Hub

Background

The Act broadens a number of ASIC’s responsibilities relating to the financial advice industry. For more information about ASIC’s role under the Act, see Better Advice Act broadens ASIC’s regulatory responsibilities.

Following the introduction of the Professional Standards Reforms in 2017, all financial advisers are required to pass the exam in order to provide personal advice to retail clients on 'relevant financial products' (i.e. financial products other than basic banking and general insurance products, and consumer credit insurance).

For more information, see Professional Standards Reforms and How the reforms affect you