The changes to the Code of Professional Conduct for AFAs, coming into force soon, include clearer guidelines around training hosted by product providers and what constituted “structured” learning. 

“If the training is clearly about a specific product offered by a provider, then it is more likely to be classed as a sales training session and therefore would probably not be considered structured learning,” Angi Mann said.

“However, if the training is about the generic application of a product that the provider, along with other providers, offers then it is more likely to be structured learning.”

But Mann said some product providers offered excellent training, and even if their product training sessions don’t count as structured hours they are still clearly appropriate for advisers to attend. “It's about maintaining your competence and knowledge in order to provide appropriate recommendations.”

Heathcote Investment Partners director Clayton Coplestone, who is travelling the country this week with his Meet the Managers roadshow, said some courses were little more than “product flogging sessions” by product providers.  “I’ve seen a number of events where they say ‘come along and we’ll give you a muffin and a CPD point’,” he said.

The grey area was “in between”, such as when fund managers spoke about a market trend then linked it back to how their funds were positioned. “You can’t just make an innocuous statement like ‘tapering is coming off’.  There has to be a ‘so what?’”

Vicki Watson, director of Diversified Investment Strategies, said there could sometimes be a fine line between what’s education and what’s not.

“Sometimes if you are not aware of what some of the managers offer, you go along to them and you think ‘I didn’t know they did that.  Then you’ve got some of the old ones doing the same roadshow again and again.  It’s same old, same old.”