Adviser exam's 34th cycle sat as qualified-but-absent pool grows

Candidates in the 34th cycle of the Financial Advisers Exam sat the assessment last Wednesday, 20 August, with results expected from ASIC in the second half of September based on the turnaround of recent cycles. One further sitting remains this calendar year, scheduled for November.

The August cohort's size will be watched closely, because the trend it inherits is pointing down.

Results from the June sitting, the 33rd cycle, were released by ASIC on 3 July. Some 209 candidates sat, of whom 150 passed, a pass rate of 71.7 per cent, almost unchanged from 71.6 per cent in March and above the roughly 70 per cent average of the past five sittings. Of the 137 candidates sitting for the first time, 104 passed.

The stability of the pass rate masks a shrinking pipeline. The June candidature of 209 was down from 292 in March and from 247 at the equivalent sitting a year earlier, and the 150 passes compare with 209 in March and 157 in June 2025. Padua WealthData's analysis of the results described the sitting as a decline on last year.

Across the life of the exam, 22,748 individual candidates have now sat it, with 21,113, or 92.8 per cent, passing, demonstrating the required skills across advice construction, ethics and legal requirements. That compares with a cumulative 22,611 candidates and a 92 per cent pass rate reported after the March cycle.

The cumulative figures continue to point to a substantial pool of exam-qualified individuals who have not proceeded to authorisation. With the register at 14,893 at the end of June, WealthData put the number of exam passers not practising as advisers at 6,220, up from 4,685 in June 2025. That widening gap has drawn increasing attention as the profession debates its capacity to meet demand from an ageing client base.

Exam cohorts have become a closely watched leading indicator for the Financial Adviser Register, with each release of results typically followed by a wave of new entrant authorisations in subsequent weeks. The March cohort of 209 passing candidates was credited with helping push the financial year net change back toward positive territory, and new entrants from the June cohort flowed onto the register through July. WealthData's most recent weekly analysis, however, noted a slowdown in new entrants, with recent register growth driven largely by experienced advisers switching licensees or returning from breaks.

The exam is conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research as a computer-based assessment of at least 70 multiple-choice questions split equally across three knowledge domains, at a fee of $1,500 per sitting. Candidates taking the August cycle by remote proctoring were required to schedule their sessions by 17 August to avoid additional fees.

For licensees, the November cycle is now the final opportunity this calendar year to move professional year candidates through the exam requirement, which must be completed before a new entrant begins the third quarter of their professional year.

The exam itself is set to remain a fixture. Under the government's proposed streamlining of adviser education standards, confirmed as part of the reform package outlined by Financial Services Minister Daniel Mulino at the National Press Club on 19 August, prospective advisers would still sit the exam, but would no longer be required to hold a prescribed financial advice degree, with a bachelor's degree or higher in any discipline sufficient subject to conditions.

Results from the August sitting are expected to be published on ASIC's website, consistent with the timetable of recent cycles.