A good start

Caroline Da Silva, resident FAIS expert at the SAIA, speaks to Angelo Coppola about the recent RPL exams.

“When similar legislation to FAIS was introduced in the UK and Australia, it affected the insurance industries and especially the intermediary corps of those countries.

“Inseta should be commended for the excellent work they have donein ensuring that the same did not happen in South Africa. The exams have assisted in taking muchof the panic out of compliance with regards to the Fit and Proper requirements.

Although FAIS-type legislation is not unique to South Africa,the approach adopted by Inseta is a world first and will ease the implementation of the legislation.

“The task that Inseta have - voluntarily - taken upon themselves was huge. One of the intentions of FAIS is to ensure that insurance intermediaries are qualified to give advice, and will increasingly become more qualified to do so and ever more professional in their chosen careers.“

“The RPL exercise was only the beginning of the professionalisation of the insurance intermediaries in South Africa,” says Da Silva.

“The results were good. More than 11 000 intermediaries wrote the exams. Of those, 82% passed and 1500 got distinctions.

“If one takes a closer look at the results, it is also good to note that those who wrote the higher level exams, e.g. Life Category C and Short-term Commercial,got good results.

“It should be emphasized that these exams were only meant to assist advisors in meeting the minimum requirements.

“This is the start of a continuous programme of professional development. The fact that so many of the advisors who did not meet the minimum requirements before, passed this exam, shows that most of the financial advisors are qualified to do their jobs.

“One must also remember that many financial advisors already meet the minimum requirements and did not sit these exams, and many already meet the higher levels ofqualifications required,” says da Silva.

“No process, or initiative, is perfect. Inseta will have learnt a few lessons in this first round that they will be able to use positively in the next.”