The life insurance industry is baulking at a last-minute change to the Financial Advisers Bill, which removes the requirement for insurance advisers to become fully-authorised financial advisors.
The Commerce Select Committee announced the changes to the draft legislation on Friday, after it settled on a new definition of financial planning.
The revised Financial Advisers Pre-Implementation Bill means financial advisers who give advice on certain products, such as residential mortgages and term insurance, need only become registered advisers, without a qualification.
Under the original draft published a year ago, many of them had to attain a Level 5 qualification.
The new regulation comes into force on 1 December.
Insurance company Sovereign says with only six months to go, it's too late to be making changes.
Spokesman David Drillien says Sovereign spent the last year training its 1000 advisers to obtain a qualification and the rule change means only 100 of them now require it.
Investment Savings and Insurance Association chief executive Vance Arkinstall agrees the late change to the bill is frustrating, but overall it is an improvement.
Sovereign says it will still encourage all its advisers become fully authorised, as it believes qualifications will become standard in the future.
