The Terms 'Financial Planner | Financial Adviser' Enshrined in Law

The terms 'Financial Planner' and 'Financial Adviser' are about to be enshrined in law.

Effectively, this means that it will be a legal offence to call yourself a Financial Planner or Financial Adviser, unless you are licenced, and therefore suitably qualified.

This is important for clients when seeking professional advice about their financial requirements, because they will now have the confidence of knowing they are actually dealing with a qualified and licenced Financial Adviser.

Up until this legislation was introduced, anybody could call themselves a Financial Planner or Financial Adviser. Some property spruikers often called themselves Financial Advisers, with the intended meaning being that they were providing a prospective buyer with financial advice when recommending they purchase a property, which may have not been sound financial advice for the particular buyer.

I originally obtained my Financial Adviser's licence in 1993, and recently obtained my own Australian Financial Services Licence in March 2012. Now I will be able to legally refer to myself as a Financial Planner or Financial Adviser. It's about time.