Money Management | Vol. 35 No 11 | July 1, 2021

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MAGAZINE OF CHOICE FOR AUSTRALIA’S WEALTH INDUSTRY

www.moneymanagement.com.au

Vol. 35 No 11 | July 1, 2021

CONSTRUCTING A PORTFOLIO

Lessons from COVID-19

17

TOOLBOX

Retaking the exam

Investing in LICs

20

Opportunity for FASEA exam retake in 2022

VALUE

BY LAURA DEW

THE Government has granted a limited one-time extension to advisers who have failed the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) exam twice to sit it next year. A statement from Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy, Jane Hume, said there would be limited exemptions available. These would apply to those who had made previous exam attempts but failed at those. “For those who have made two

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An overdue market rotation AFTER a decade of outperformance by growth stocks, markets are seeing a reversal with value stocks now being in favour. Since the announcement of the COVID-19 vaccine in November, value stocks such as commodities and financials had been blazing a trail while their growth counterparts such as technology were seeing sell-offs of 30%-40%. The positive economic environment was also highlighting the extreme multiples of growth stocks with some investors being reluctant to buy in at those prices. As to whether there was still time for investors to buy in to the value trade, managers felt it still had further to run, particularly if there was a high inflation environment which tended to benefit those cyclical stocks. Dougal Maple-Brown, head of Australian equities at MapleBrown Abbott, said: “Essentially growth has outperformed value for a decade and value has had a good six to nine months. Over the entire time, value has underperformed growth by approximately 50% and value has probably recaptured around 10% more recently. “So, whether you look at the time periods or indeed the underperformance, we would argue that value’s run is only just getting started”.

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FASEA

Full feature on page 14

genuine attempts to pass the FASEA exam, and were unable, there will be a one-time, limited extension into next year. There will be at least one further opportunity to pass the exam offered in 2022 for those who qualify for the exemption. Costs, and timings for the 2022 period have yet to be confirmed,” she said. “If advisers have not sat the exam twice prior to the end of this year, no extension will be granted. Please do not delay – these exemptions will be very limited.” There were only two more exam sittings taking place in 2021.

Half of Count Financial advisers have left CountPlus since acquisition BY CHRIS DASTOOR

APPROXIMATELY half of the original adviser cohort that CountPlus acquired from Count Financial have left post-acquisition, either due to retirement or they had ceased to provide financial advice, according to a business update from the adviser firm. It had also established a pipeline of 73 firms and 197 advisers, with four firms currently being onboarded with 11 financial advisers and gross business earnings of $3.9 million. It said 85% of Count Financial advisers had passed the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) exam, compared to 65% for the industry average. Over 60% of Count Financial advisers had two or fewer education units to complete before the 1 January, 2026 deadline. The number of advice documents produced by the firm had increased 59% for the year up to 31 May, 2021. This was with less financial advisers, which meant an 87% increase in advice documents produced per financial adviser. The firm also noted it raised a provision for remediation related to historical conduct of $252 million, and Count Financial and CountPlus had been granted indemnity from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) for $200 million to cover remediation of Continued on page 3

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