Information on the Financial Advisers Register

The Financial Advisers Register contains information about financial advisers.

Australian financial services (AFS) licensees are responsible for appointing financial advisers they have authorised to the Financial Advisers Register. When they do this, AFS licensees must provide the following information about the financial adviser.

When this information changes, the AFS licensee must update the Register within 30 business days.

*mandatory information
^additional information required by the professional standards for financial advisers from 15 November 2019

Financial adviser details

Provide details about the financial adviser:

Date of appointment to the AFS licence*
Representative number
Australian Business Number (ABN)
Given name*
Other given names
Family name*
Date of birth*
Country of birth*
State/territory of birth, if in Australia
Suburb/city of birth, if in Australia
Principal place of business:*^

Country*
Building/Property name
Floor/Level
Unit/Office
Street number*
Street name*
Street type*
City/Suburb*
Postcode*
State/Territory*

Email address*^ (not displayed on the public Financial Advisers Register)
Adviser role type:*^

financial adviser
provisional financial adviser, or
time-share adviser.

Definition of financial adviser

A financial adviser (relevant provider) is a person who is:

an AFS licensee, an authorised representative, employee or director of an AFS licensee, or an employee or director of a related body corporate of an AFS licensee, and
authorised to provide personal advice to retail clients, as the AFS licensee or on behalf of the AFS licensee, in relation to one or more relevant financial products.

A provisional financial adviser is a person who:

is undertaking work and training that meets the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) requirements, and
must meet the education requirement set by FASEA and pass the exam approved by FASEA before they can be authorised and appointed to the Financial Advisers Register.

A time-share adviser is a person who is authorised to only provide advice on a time-sharing scheme. They cannot provide advice on any other relevant financial products.

Relevant financial products

When an AFS licensee appoints a financial adviser to the Register, they must authorise them to provide advice on at least one of the products on the list of 'relevant financial products'.

Clients must be ‘retail only’ or ‘retail and wholesale’.

The relevant financial products that a financial adviser can provide advice on must not exceed those of the AFS licensee, or the organisation that the AFS licensee has authorised to provide advice, for example, a body corporate.

Relevant financial products are all financial products except:

basic banking products (basic deposit products and a facility for making non-cash payments)
general insurance products
consumer credit insurance, or
a combination of any of these products.

See Regulatory Guide 146 Licensing: Training of financial product advisers (RG 146).

Deposit and payment products	Non-basic deposit products Non-cash payment facilities
Derivatives If you select ‘All’, you cannot select one or more of the other derivatives.	All Wool only Electricity only (leave blank if not applicable) Grain only
Foreign exchange contracts	Foreign exchange products
Government debentures, stocks or bonds	Government debentures, stocks or bonds
Life insurance products If you select 'Life risk insurance', you cannot also select 'Consumer credit insurance only'.	Investment life insurance products Life risk insurance products Consumer credit insurance only
Managed investment schemes Any of the managed investment scheme options can be selected, with the exception of the following combinations: 'Managed investment schemes, excluding IDPS' and 'Managed investment schemes, including IDPS' 'Managed investment schemes, excluding IDPS' and 'IDPS Only'.	Managed investment schemes excluding investor directed portfolio services (IDPS) Managed investment schemes including investor directed portfolio services (IDPS) IDPS only Own managed investment scheme only (leave blank if not applicable) Horse racing syndicate Time-sharing scheme Managed discretionary account (MDA) services
Retirement savings account products	Retirement savings account products
Securities	Securities
Superannuation If you select ‘All’, you cannot select one or more of the other superannuation authorisations.	All Self-managed superannuation fund A person's existing holding in a superannuation product
Margin lending facilities	Standard margin lending facility (leave blank if not applicable) Non-standard margin lending facility (leave blank if not applicable)
Carbon credits	Australian carbon credit unit Eligible international emissions unit
Miscellaneous financial facilities	Miscellaneous financial investment products — MDA services Miscellaneous financial risk products Miscellaneous financial investment products
Further restrictions on financial adviser authorisations Include any caveats or restrictions on the financial products provided.	Further restrictions

Limited AFS licence

Limited AFS licensees who are appointing a financial adviser will only be provided with selections applicable to a limited AFS licensee.

A limited AFS licensee can only be authorised to give personal advice to retail clients about:

self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs)
a client’s existing superannuation holdings in certain circumstances, and
‘class of product’ advice about securities, simple managed investment schemes, life risk insurance products and superannuation products.

A limited AFS licensee can only authorise a financial adviser to give advice about these products.

Employment history

Provide the financial adviser's employment history for the last five (5) years. This does not include their current employment. Only previous appointments as a financial adviser are considered employment history.

If the financial adviser has been employed by the current AFS licensee for more than five years, you do not need to provide any further employment history. If the financial adviser has been employed by more than one licensee during the past five years, provide details for all licensees.

Employer's AFS licence number*
Representative number
Employment start date*
Employment end date*
Year the financial adviser first provided personal advice on relevant financial products to retail clients*

The Financial Advisers Register displays the current AFS licensee name. If an AFS licensee has changed their name since the employment period in the history, you can search for them using their AFS licence number, which stays the same.

Qualifications and training courses

Provide information on the qualifications and training courses that a financial adviser has completed relevant to providing financial services.

The Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) is implementing and overseeing the education, exam and training standards for financial advisers as part of the professional standards for financial advisers. For more information, see qualifications and training courses.

You can include up to five (5) qualifications and training courses. If there are more than five, you need to determine which are the most relevant.

This information is displayed on the public Financial Advisers Register.

Name of course*
Provider/Institution*
Year attained*
The type of course (AQF level)*^

Doctoral Degree (AQF 10)
Masters Degree (AQF 9)
Bachelor Honours Degree (AQF 8)
Graduate Diploma (AQF 8)
Graduate Certificate (AQF 8)
Bachelor Degree (AQF 7)
Advanced Diploma (AQF 6)
Diploma (AQF 5)
Certificate (AQF 1-4)
Bridging Course – Ethics
Bridging Course – Regulation and Legal Obligations
Bridging Course – Behavioural Finance
Professional Designation
Other

Whether the qualification is FASEA-approved^

Note – Existing qualifications that are FASEA-approved cannot be edited on the Register. They must be deleted and re‑added with the AQF level and FASEA‑approved check box.

FASEA exam

Provide the date a financial adviser was notified that they passed the FASEA exam.^*

Continuing professional development (CPD) requirements

Provide information on a financial adviser's CPD requirements:

CPD year start date,*^ or
date when a financial adviser failed to meet their CPD requirements.^

CPD year start date is reported once for an AFS licensee, not per individual financial adviser. The date is not displayed on the public Financial Advisers Register. An AFS licensee can change their CPD year start date, but not in the 12‑month period after their original decision about the start date.

Failure to meet CPD requirements displays on the Financial Advisers Register as:

[DD/MM/YYYY] – failure to meet annual requirements for continuing professional development was notified.

Note – between 15 November and 31 December 2019, AFS licensees will need to provide CPD information by submitting Form FS20 Change of details for an Australian Financial Services licence (Form FS20).

Professional memberships

Provide information on the financial adviser’s membership of any professional bodies relevant to providing financial services.

You can choose up to five (5) professional bodies from the options above.

If the professional body is not listed, you can add the name to the Financial Advisers Register.

Make sure that all your financial adviser qualifications, training, and professional memberships are correct and that you update them as they change.

Compliance scheme membership

Exemption for compliance scheme cover

ASIC has granted a three-year exemption to AFS licensees from the obligation under the Corporations Act 2001 to ensure that financial advisers are covered by an approved compliance scheme, and from the associated notification obligations, for this period.

For more information, see ASIC's media release ASIC relief from financial adviser compliance scheme obligations takes effect (19-309MR).

Updating information on the Register

When a financial adviser's details change, the AFS licensee must update their information on the Financial Advisers Register within 30 business days. See Maintain or correct a financial adviser's details.

If you have concerns about information for a financial adviser authorised under another AFS licence, see Report inaccurate information on the Financial Advisers Register.