CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) POLICY

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Policy

As an Australian Financial Services Licensee, Alteris Financial Group (Alteris) has a licence to provide personal financial advice to retail clients. We are required to have in place a CPD Policy for the individuals (referred to as representatives) who provide personal advice on behalf of Alteris. The legislation has very specific requirements and our policy is designed to address those requirements. In this Policy ‘our’ and ‘we’ refers to all parties.

Training year

Our training year commences on 1 July each year. Each representative must have an individual training plan for the relevant year which must be approved by Alteris. These training plans will be recorded in the Kaplan Ontrack system. The representative must also record completed training and provide it to Alteris for verification when requested to do so. Those representatives who do not complete the required training are to be reported for non-compliance to ASIC.

Content of training

Training must cover the following competencies and minimum hours in each category:

The number of hours to be completed by all representatives in a training year must total a minimum of 40 hours and all specific knowledge targets must also be met. Representatives are permitted 4 hours of professional reading towards the minimum of 40 hours.

Representatives are permitted 4 hours of professional reading towards their minimum of 40 hours. We require that they record reading with the following detail:

• Title of article
• Publication
• Date
• Author
• Topics covered

Although representatives are responsible for developing their training plans, we will provide a training plan which will include areas where we believe improvement is required and it will be based on CPD activities that Alteris have approved. If a representative wants to amend the training plan, they must seek approval from us.

Approved CPD activities

The session must clearly include content specific to the area of competency outlined in the table above. It is to be presented by a suitably qualified person on the subject matter. It must contain an assessment to confirm the understanding of the subject matter by the representative.

The method of delivery can be face to face, online through written communication or video/streaming or through a published paper approved by Alteris.

The following will be taken into consideration when we assess a CPD Activity:

a) the activity is in one of the CPD areas in the Table above;
b) the activity has sufficient intellectual or practical content; Is the appropriate learning level and has appropriate technical or                                      practical content:

1.         i.   Clearly defined aims and learning outcomes;
2.         ii.  Clearly defined, logical structure that follows adult learning principles;
3.         iii. Is current, accurate and up-to-date;
4.  
5. c) the activity primarily deals with matters related to the provision of financial product advice and the associated business                                           activities;
6. d) the activity is led or conducted by one or more persons who are appropriate, and have sufficient standing, expertise, academic                               qualifications and practical experience;
7. e) the activity is designed to enhance relevant providers’ knowledge and skills in areas that are relevant to the provision of                     financial       product advice; and,
8. f) Includes one or more of the following: workshop, face-face presentation, multimedia, worked examples, activities, case studies,        tips,              warnings, and if appropriate, reference to relevant legislation.

We have contracted with Kaplan Professional who will provide content which will meet the above CPD Activities for the compulsory competency areas, which means that all its content is regarded as approved CPD activities. While we have delegated this process, we retain responsibility as the responsible licensee for our relevant providers.

For Alteris to consider approving a CPD activity that has not previously been approved, we will need

a) Proof of attendance/completion (e.g. certificate, digital record, transcript), which includes as a minimum:

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

Preference is given to activities with a structured assessment component. Evidence of the successful completion of the assessment is required.

Record keeping

The representatives are required to retain records of:

• the qualifying CPD activities it undertakes and
• when they were undertaken and
• number of hours spent on each activity and
• evidence of completion of the activity and the outcomes of the activity and
• the progress of implementation of his or her CPD plan

As mentioned earlier in this policy, Alteris have contracted Kaplan Professional to provide content that meets the CPD activities. Its online system, Ontrack also provides our representatives and Alteris with a training register that will record training completed through that system. Representatives will need to record other CPD activities completed external to Ontrack and provide that to the compliance manager for approval before it will be counted towards the targets.

Alteris will periodically request, at least quarterly, records of training completed to track that its representatives are completing training that complies with our requirements. Representatives who have not achieved the required training by the end of the training year, 30 June of each year, will be reported to the regulator that the standard required has not been met which in turn will be recorded on the Financial Adviser Register (FAR).