Exam focus
ASIC financial adviser exam and professional standards for personal advice to retail clients.
Who this helps
- - Future financial advisers
- - Relevant providers
- - Provisional relevant providers
- - AFSL compliance teams
Route map
- 1. Confirm whether the person will provide personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products.
- 2. For relevant providers and persons training to become relevant providers, ASIC professional standards include qualifications, the financial adviser exam, professional year, CPD, and Code of Ethics requirements.
- 3. ASIC administers the financial adviser exam and points candidates to ACER materials for booking and sitting the exam.
- 4. AFS licensees must maintain adviser information and register evidence where required.
Licensing context
- - The financial adviser exam is not the same as responsible manager evidence for an AFSL application.
- - Professional standards do not apply in the same way to wholesale-only advice, general advice, or certain non-relevant-product advice contexts.
- - AFSL authorisation, representative status, supervision, and Financial Advisers Register accuracy still matter.
Study focus
- - Study applied ethics, advice construction, regulatory/legal obligations, client care, and professional reasoning.
- - Learn the boundary between personal advice, general advice, retail clients, wholesale clients, and relevant financial products.
- - Prepare an evidence file for qualifications, professional year, CPD, Code of Ethics, authorisation, and register information.
What to verify before relying on the route
- - Whether the person is a relevant provider, provisional relevant provider, authorised representative, or responsible manager.
- - Whether the advice is personal advice to retail clients or a different advice/service model.
- - Exam booking, resources, eligibility, timing, and professional standards updates from ASIC and ACER.
Application tie-in
- - AFSL applications should separately evidence responsible manager competence and adviser professional standards where both are relevant.
- - Licensees should keep register, supervision, CPD, and professional year evidence current.
- - Consumer-facing pages and due diligence should link back to official registers.
Common mistakes
- - Confusing the financial adviser exam with AFSL responsible manager competence.
- - Assuming RG 146 is still the route for relevant providers.
- - Ignoring professional year, CPD, Code of Ethics, or register information.
- - Treating wholesale-only and retail personal advice roles as the same route.
Paper and module study maps
- - ASIC financial adviser exam study map for relevant providers: Financial adviser exam and professional standards for people giving personal advice to retail clients.
Disclaimer
Information on LicenseCompare is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, regulatory, financial, tax, investment, or professional advice. Licensing requirements depend on facts and change over time. Always consult official regulator materials and qualified professional advisers.