Continuing Professional Development Policy

This policy aims to detail the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements for Authorised Representatives (ARs) and Responsible Managers (RMs) at Morgans.

Who does this Policy apply to?

All ARs and RMs of Morgans.

Why have this Policy?

As a profession, it is important that those who are authorised to provide advice to clients maintain the relevant competency, knowledge and skills to enable them to undertake their role. As an AR or RM of Morgans, you will do this by undertaking CPD activities on a regular basis.

Professional development activities need to be applicable to the area that you are advising on and incorporate any areas for improvement in, and development and extension of, your competence, knowledge and skills.

As the licensee, Morgans will approve the qualifying CPD activities and incorporate these in your CPD Plan.

What do Authorised Representatives (ARs) need to know/do?

It is requirement for retaining AR status that ARs complete all training allocated by Morgans. This includes any CPD activities detailed in their CPD plan.
Morgans CPD year runs from 1 July to 30 June each year.
ARs moving across from other licensees will need to provide their previous CPD plans to Morgans. Overall CPD requirements will be pro-rata based on the date an individual commences with Morgans or the date at which the AR is issued, if they have completed the requested CPD points for the period prior to joining Morgans.
CPD requirements for ARs providing personal advice to retail clients are stipulated by FASEA. ARs are required to complete a minimum of 40 hours of qualifying CPD activities each CPD year.
Provisional financial advisers who are completing their Professional Year are not required to meet the outlined CPD requirements. In the first CPD year as an AR, CPD requirements will be pro-rata for the period between the completion of the professional year and the CPD year.
All other ARs are required to complete CPD training as nominated by Morgans. They are required to complete a minimum of 20 hours in the designated CPD category each CPD year.
The following table outlines the number of hours of CPD required per CPD category for the different types of ARs:
For each approved competency, you will need to complete a total of 3 hours of approved CPD activities.
Approved competencies are: Financial planning, Securities, Derivatives, Managed investments, Margin lending, Superannuation, Life insurance.
If an AR has all the approved competencies they will not need to choose any other courses.
If an AR has less than 7 approved competencies, they will need to make up the number of hours to total 21 hours for this CPD Category by choosing from the following options:

complete any other courses within the 'technical competence / general' area of their CPD Plan in Kaplan; and/or
enrol in and complete an External CPD Activity and have this approved by Morgans; and/or
undertake professional / technical reading (e.g. reading a combination of the monthly professional association newsletter, the Wealth Protection Weeklyread on MINT, technical news articles from ABD on MINT). Technical reading counts for up to a maximum of 4 hours.

EXAMPLES

Adviser A: has all 7 Approved Competencies and completes 3 hours worth of courses in Kaplan for each of these competencies, giving them a total of 21 hours in the CPD category of 'technical competence / general' (i.e. 7 x 3 hours).

Adviser B: has 4 of the 7 Approved Competencies (Securities, Managed investments, Margin lending, Derivatives). They complete 3 hours worth of courses in Kaplan for each of the 4 competencies giving them a total of 12 hours in the CPD category of 'technical competence / general' (i.e. 4 x 3 hours). To reach 21 hours, they need to complete another 9 hours:

undertake professional / technical reading by reading a combination of the monthly professional association newsletter, the Wealth Protection Weekly read on MINT, technical news articles from ABD on MINT (4 hours); and
study for and pass the National Exam (3.5 hours); and
complete courses from the 'technical competence / general' section in Kaplan (1.5 hours).

Credit representatives

12. ARs who are also credit representatives are required to complete 20 hours of Credit CPD each year. Their CPD Plan will include the additional training requirements.

TASA

13. ARs registered with the TPB are required to complete 60 hours of continuing professional education over a 3-year period with a minimum of 7 hours per year (commencing on the day they are registered with TPB).

14. The CPD Plan in Kaplan will include courses to meet this requirement. ARs need to make sure that they are selecting courses which will also give them TASA points.

Your CPD Plan

15. All CPD activity will be recorded via your account with Kaplan Ontrack. All records will be kept for 7 years from the end of each CPD year. CPD plans will specify:

individual overall CPD target
minimum requirements in each CPD area
any other specific requirements that must be met

16. You will have an individual CPD plan detailed via their account with Kaplan Ontrack which will be developed in conjunction with you, your Branch Manager / Team Leader, compliance and the P&P team. Your CPD plan will be reviewed on an annual basis prior to the commencement of the new CPD year to take account of any areas identified for improvement in, or development and extension of, your competence, knowledge and skills. Morgans will be responsible for uploading your CPD plan to Kaplan Ontrack and ensuring you have appropriate resources and opportunities available to enable you to meet the requirements of your CPD plan.

17. You will be responsible for ensuring that you complete the required hours detailed in your CPD plan by the end of the CPD year.

18. Any training that we load against your CPD plan will be training approved by Morgans as a qualified CPD activity. In addition to the Kaplan Assessors, Morgans have Internal Assessors who are qualified to assess and approve an activity as meeting the requirements to be a qualifying CPD activity.

19. A CPD activity must meet and provide evidence of the following requirements to be approved by Morgans as a qualifying CPD activity:

Clearly defined aims and learning outcomes
Is current, accurate and up-to-date
Relates to one of the FASEA CPD areas
Is the appropriate learning level and has appropriate technical or practical content
Is led or conducted by one or more persons with appropriate expertise, academic qualifications and practical experience
Enhances advisers' knowledge and skills, and/or contributes to the maintenance of knowledge and skills in areas relevent to the provision of financial product advice and financial advice services
Includes one or more of the following: workshop, face-to-face presentation, multimedia, worked examples, activities, case studies, tips, warnings, and if appropriate, reference to relevant legislation
Preference is given to activities with a structured assessment component. Evidence of the successful completion of the assessment is required.

20. Morgans will not approve an activity unless the activity meets the qualifying CPD activity requirements and evidence requirements set out in this policy.

External CPD Activity

21. If you complete an External CPD Activity which you would like to have considered as part of your CPD Plan, it is your responsibility to upload evidence of the external training via your account with Kaplan and email [email protected] so that it can be approved by one of our Internal Assessors.

22. For approval to be granted for External CPD Activity you must provide proof of attendance/completion (e.g. certificate, digital record, transcript), which includes as a minimum:

The name of the activity and the provider
The date the activity was undertaken
An overview of the activity
A bio or CV of person(s) who developed or presented the activity, including academic qualifications and experience
The CPD area to which it relates
The duration in minutes/hours of the activity
The letterhead and/or signature of the provider or an appropriate authorised person.

23. If approved, the relevent hours will be credited to your CPD Plan and count towards satisfaction of your minimum 40 hours.

Additional compliance requirements

24. The Compliance team may direct you to complete additional traning as a result of an audit, breach or other compliance investigation. This will be in addition to your CPD Plan and must be completed. Any failure to complete additional training by the due date will be treated as a breach and dealt with in accordance with our Breach Policy.

Breaches of this policy

25. Any breaches of this policy will be dealt with by reference to our Breach Policy.

26. For FASEA governed ARs, failure to:

complete your CPD Plan prior to 30 June each year; and/or
complete an individual plan each CPD year; and/or
record any changes to your individual plan in writing.

is a significant breach and must be reported by Morgans to ASIC and your professional association.

Who is responsible?

ARs and RMs – you are responsible for:

Understanding and complying with the terms of this policy.
As a professional, taking ownership of your CPD and ensuring you are undertaking activities that enhance and support the ongoing professional development of your competence, knowledge and skills.
Providing input to your CPD plan each year.
Uploading any CPD activities undertaken externally into your CPD plan in Kaplan Ontrack and submitting evidence for assessment and approval.
Meeting the requirements of your CPD plan each CPD year.

People and Performance (P&P) – are responsible for:

Administering Kaplan.
Creating the Kaplan account for each AR and RM.
Loading qualifying CPD activities against the CPD plan for each AR and RM.
Assisting ARs and RMs with any queries relating to this policy or Kaplan.
Ensuring records required by the FASEA standards are completed and maintained in Kaplan.
Reporting on progress towards completion of CPD plans to compliance, Branch Managers / Team Leaders, management, and ARs/RMs.
Overall monitoring of CPD plans (P&P will run the relevant reports and highlight to compliance and the Branch Manager / Team Leader, any AR who is 'behind' on the continuous part of their CPD plan).

Branch Managers / Team Leaders – are responsible for:

Providing input to each of their ARs CPD plan each year.
Actively managing ARs towards the completion of their CPD plan.

Internal Assessors – are responsible for:

Assessing External CPD activity and determining whether it is a qualifying CPD activity in accordance with the FASEA determination.
Allocating the number of hours per CPD category to each approved External CPD activity.
Liaising with P&P to update the relevant CPD plan to ensure the minimum 40 hours of qualifying CPD activity is maintained.

Compliance – are responsible for:

Providing input to each ARs CPD plan each year.
Assessing and dealing with any breaches of this policy in accordance with the Breach Policy.
Checking compliance with this CPD policy and with the FASEA determination by Morgans (as the licensee) and its ARs and RMs.
Overall supervision of CPD plans (follow up discussions with ARs, Branch Managers / Team Leaders as a result of the monitoring information provided by P&P).

Definitions

Approved Competency

Securities
Managed investments
Margin lending
Superannuation / SMSF
Life insurance
Financial planning
Derivatives (ADA1 or ADA2)

ASIC

Australian Securities & Investments Commission

Authorised Representative (AR)

A person who is authorised by Morgans to provide financial product advice and financial services to Morgans clients

Client care and practice

The activity is designed to enhance your ability to act as a client-centric practitioner in advising retail clients

CPD

Continuing professional development

CPD category

The category that qualifying CPD activity falls in to count towards achievement of the requisite number of CPD hours to meet the requirements of your CPD plan. Categories include:

Technical competence
Client care and practice
Regulatory compliance and consumer protection
Professionalism and ethics
General

CPD plan

The individual training plan prepared by the AR and RM for each CPD year and hosted in Kaplan

CPD year

The period between 1 July and 30 June each year

External CPD activity

Seminar, lecture, educational course, conference or similar formally structured activity designed to enhance your knowledge and skills in areas that are relevant to the provision of financial product advice and financial advice services. This does not include professional or technical reading.

FASEA

Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority

General

This activity is designed to maintain and extend your professional capabilities, knowledge and skills, including keeping up to date with regulatory, technical and other relevant developments. It can include:

Professional and technical reading (maximum 4 hours per CPD year)
National exam; formal education; FASEA approved bridging course; training towards designations relevant to your financial services practice (maximum 30 hours per CPD year)

Internal Assessors

Employees of Morgans who have undertaken appropriate training who are authorised by Morgans to assess and approve CPD activities as being qualifying CPD activities. This includes an indication of the number of qualifying hours achieved within each CPD category.

Kaplan

Kaplan Ontrack online professional system used to record, maintain and monitor Morgans CPD plans. CPD plans can be accessed via your account at www.mykaplan.edu.au

Morgans

Refers collectively to each of the licenced entities – Morgans Financial Limited, Morgans Corporate Limited and Morgans Financial Planning Pty Limited

Professionalism and ethics

The activity is designed to enhance your capacity to act as an ethical professional

Regulatory compliance and consumer protection

The activity is designed to enhance your understanding of applicable legal obligations and how to comply with them

Responsible Managers

Individuals who have been notified to ASIC as being the people with the requisite knowledge and skills to manage the Morgans financial services business

TASA

Tax Agent Services Act

Technical competence

The activity is designed to enhance your technical proficiency and ability to develop and provide advice strategies that are appropriate to the objectives, financial situations and needs of different classes of retail clients.

TPB

Tax Practitioners Board

RELATED LEGISLATION AND DOCUMENTS

Breach Policy
Corporations (Relevant Providers Continuing Professional Development Standard) Determination 2018
Section 921D Corporations Act (Cth) 2001 – relevant providers to meet continuing professional development standard

APPROVAL AND REVIEW DETAILS

You may provide feedback about this policy by emailing [email protected]

APPROVAL – Director, P&P

COMPLIANCE, MONITORING AND REVIEW – Compliance and P&P departments

NEXT REVIEW DATE – March 2020

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