Angus Dale-Jones, independent PAA board member and compliance expert, spoke at the association’s recent board meeting about the submission it made on the issues paper for the Financial Advisers Act review.

The association wants the regulations changed so the Code, currently just for AFAs, would apply to all advisers. There would no long be RFA, AFA and QFE designations.

Operating under the code would mean advisers who are now RFAs and QFE advisers would have to achieve a level five qualification and undertake ongoing professional development, as well as meet higher conduct standards.

But Dale-Jones said the PAA was not lobbying for the current AFA standards to be applied with a broad brush across the industry.

He said the code would have to be refined if it was to apply beyond investment advice.

He told Good Returns he made the point to the meeting that the code would have to have to include the flexibility to apply to each advice stream.

He said there was support for the idea and a number of advisers saw the removal of the different adviser designations as inevitable.

But he said concerns were also being raised by some advisers. “There is a lot of ‘how is this going to affect me and my business?”

He said some advisers were going back and looking at qualifications they had received. “They are dusting off the qualifications they did get but haven’t converted to AFAs - others are thinking they might need to do an exam, others are more worried about how their business processes will have to change.”

Dale-Jones said it was positive and healthy that advisers were giving thought to the issues and how changes to adviser regulation might affect their businesses.