Plugging the knowledge gap with CPD

There isn’t a single mandatory CPD point requirement for all financial advisers as the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) does not set a specific number.

Instead, it says financial advisers must maintain their competence, knowledge, and skill by progressively completing learning activities that are relevant to the advice they provide and the regulatory framework.

Kiwi Adviser Network business development manager Warwick Slow says, in a LinkedIn post, how many CPD hours a financial adviser should be doing is a question that comes up a lot.

The new Financial Advice Code comes into effect on November 1 and tweaks the rules around CPD, asking advisers to plan and record learning that is relevant to their practice, but it is non-prescriptive and doesn’t set any hard minimums. It also recognises “informal” learning including reading or self-directed study.

FAMNZ says mandatory ongoing CPD is critically important for mortgage advisers to stay informed.

FAMNZ managing director Peter While, who also heads up the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia and the International Mortgage Brokers Federation says his concern is that advisers’ knowledge, which may be sound, is not evolving as the industry and rules change.

“It’s exceptionally important advisers keep up professional development hours and unless it is mandated people can be a little bit lax on that.”

Under the existing rules it is up to each Financial Advice Provider (FAP) to decide what’s reasonable. “The key isn’t clocking up hours for the sake of it, it’s making sure your development is actually useful,” Slow says.

He says if mortgage advisers are serious about staying sharp, they are probably already hitting more than 20 hours a year without even trying.

“Why? Because proper CPD covers more than just the code standards. It should include compliance training, business continuity planning (BCP), complaints processes, IT systems, updates from product providers, even listening to relevant podcasts... it all adds up.

CPD training should also reflect the realities of an adviser’s role, Slow says. “A senior adviser running a large business will have different development needs than someone just starting out.”

This isn’t a numbers game, he says. “The FMA wants advisers to focus on growth, not box-ticking.”

Instead of aiming for a bare minimum, advisers should use CPD as a chance to plug knowledge gaps, stay current, and ultimately serve their clients better, Slow says.

Comments from our readers

On 23 September 2025 at 9:11 am valkyrie6 said:

Forcing the FMA to implement mandatory CPD points for financial advisers would be detrimental to the industry and here’s why.
Training is not a one size fits all with advisers vary across the investment, insurance, Mortgage industries.
Dictating a compulsory CPD structure will only strengthen the profit line of Dealer groups and training providers that already have a hierarchy or monopoly over advisers especially in the Mortgage space.
With dealer groups having a “master FAP” license with banks over all other FAP licenses, advisers are already being regulated twice, once under their own license and then again under the master FAP.
FAMNZ is just another organization struggling to make a profit so for them having a compulsory mandatory training scheme would help justify their existence at yet another cost to advisers.
All dealer groups are increasing their membership fees under the justifications of so-called training, new IT and CRMs but is reality they only want to increase profits and make advisers “ sticky” as possible to justify their existence, the problem with this is that advisers can no longer afford increased mandatory costs continuously imposed upon them like some kind of tax in the fear of losing their accreditation with the banks. Advisers are leaving the industry in droves, which is not ideal for the consumer who seem to want more access to impartial advice, not less.
What do banks think? Crickets Chirping at this stage, you get the feeling banks would prefer the third-party banking industry would shrink so consumers just go directly with no advice.

On 23 September 2025 at 10:35 am Amused said:

This attempt by FAMNZ to lobby the Government about ongoing education (CPD) through mandatory professional industry association membership is all about what is best for FAMNZ and their business. It seems that we have an outfit from Australia that decided it wanted a piece of the adviser market in New Zealand and things haven’t gone as planned for them.

FANZ’s former chief executive Katrina Shanks was quoted in late 2023 as saying that she doubted there was room for another association in New Zealand for mortgage advisers. Well, I guess this realisation has now dawned on FAMNZ hence them attempting to lobby the government to make all advisers be part of a professional body sighting education standards.

The quality of mortgage advice that NZ consumers now receive from a mortgage adviser has been improved significantly across the industry since the industry was licensed and yet because a professional association originating from Australia can’t manage to grow their membership here, they now expect all advisers to be forced into joining a voluntary organisation like FAMNZ. The above has very little to do with raising education standards for advisers and instead is all about an Australian based voluntary organisation that hasn’t been able to grow its membership in New Zealand. Clearly the FMA did not see a benefit to the NZ consumer in an adviser been made to be part of a professional assocation, not when the adviser must now be licenced to provide financial advice.

The new Financial Advice Code effective 1st November doesn’t prescribe the CPD required so logically as a mortgage adviser the CPD that you would be focusing your time on is product knowledge of the various providers that you deal with. Everything else is secondary to your role as an adviser. When discussing the subject of continuing professional development as an adviser product knowledge is paramount when providing advice.

The good news is that the lenders do a good job nowadays of letting advisers know about the changes and enhancements that they make to their policy and products, and this information is being communicated to accredited advisers regularly for FREE. Evidencing to a regulator like the FMA that you are abreast of these announcements made by the providers as they happen can be easily shown in a register. I can't think of a better or more appropriate way to demonstrate ongoing professional development as an adviser and it’s costing you nothing but time.

Mortgage advisers do not need to be paying money to a group, association or educator etc. for a course on CPD. This is one of the biggest scams within the industry currently i.e. advisers paying money for CPD courses when they don’t need to be. Unless a mortgage adviser has elected to provide advice under somebody else’s FAP licence (i.e. an aggregator) an adviser can avoid unnecessary costs associated with CPD.

As per the current code requirements self-determined CPD is perfectly acceptable provided that you can demonstrate ongoing learning. It seems the people making a big song and dance about acceptable CPD are the businesses and individuals who make money from it.

Plugging the knowledge gap with CPD

A push by FAMNZ to get the Government to mandate continuing professional development (CPD) for mortgage advisers has many wondering how many hours they should be putting in.

Monday, September 22nd 2025, 8:45PM 3 Comments

Comments from our readers

www.GoodReturns.co.nz