The Heron Partnership Pty Limited ( Heron ) recognises the importance of the training and development of our staff so that they excel in their roles and in the services provided to our clients. We believe our employees are fundamental to the success of our firm and we encourage our staff to continue to enhance their skills and abilities.
This CPD Policy applies from 1 January 2019.
All Heron staff authorised to provide personal advice, as authorised by our Australian Financial Services Licence (252538), to our retail clients, are expected to comply with this Policy.
This policy embeds a CPD framework and outlines the CPD requirements under Corporations Amendment (Professional Standards of Financial Advisers) Act 2017 (Cth) and Corporations (Relevant Providers Continuing Professional Development Standard) Determination 2018, which requires all individuals identified as 'relevant providers' to meet the requirements for CPD set by the FASEA.
This document outlines the overarching CPD policy and provides a summary of the relevant provider requirements.
This CPD policy embeds the following principles:
Relevant staff member: a person is a relevant staff member, for the purposes of this Policy, if the person:
Our Senior Actuary has the responsibility for ensuring the maintenance, regular review and update of this Policy.
Heron will continue to utilise the Kaplan Ontrack platform to assist in managing CPD. This platform enables Heron to add approved training material, track the progress of relevant staff, creates reports and provides necessary evidence of adequate CPD management.
CPD Plans for each relevant staff member, aligned with the requirements of the FASEA, developed on a pro‐rata bases for the first 18 months to 30 June 2020, and annually thereafter, will be approved by the Heron Board.
The total minimum target is 40 hours of qualifying CPD per CPD year. Qualifying CPD activities must include a minimum in the following areas:
CPD Area | Minimum requirement |
---|---|
Technical Competence | 5 hours |
|
Included in above |
Client Care and Practice | 5 hours |
Regulatory Compliance and Consumer Protection | 5 hours |
Professionalism and Ethics | 9 hours |
General | No set minimum hours |
A CPD activity must relate to one of the following CPD areas:
Item | CPD Area | Definition |
---|---|---|
1. | Technical Competence | The activity is designed to enhance participants' technical proficiency and ability to develop and provide advice strategies that are appropriate to the objectives, financial situations and needs of different classes of retail clients. |
2. | Client Care and Practice | The activity is designed to enhance participants' ability to act as a client-centric practitioner in advising retail clients. |
3. | Regulatory Compliance and Consumer Protection | The activity is designed to enhance participants' understanding of applicable legal obligations and how to comply with them. |
4. | Professionalism and Ethics | The activity is designed to enhance participants' capacity to act as an ethical professional. |
5. | General | The activity is designed to maintain and extend participants' professional capabilities, knowledge and skills, including keeping up to date with regulatory, technical and other relevant developments, but is not in an area referred to in another item of this table. |
In any CPD year, no more than the specified hours in each activity below may be counted as follows:
Heron CPD Policy assessment, approval, management and review details and responsibilities is detailed in the following table.
Item | Activity | Approval |
---|---|---|
1. | CPD Policy Approval | Heron Board |
2. | CPD Policy maintenance, review and updating | Senior Actuary |
3. | CPD Plan approval | Senior Actuary |
4. | CPD Plan management, monitoring and reporting | Senior Actuary |
5. | CPD activity approval | Senior Actuary |
70% of all CPD activities undertaken by relevant staff members must be assessed and approved by the Senior Actuary. Heron will permit relevant staff members to undertake their CPD Activity through:
70% of all CPD activities undertaken by relevant staff members must be assessed and approved by the Senior Actuary.
A CPD activity must meet and provide evidence of the following requirements to be approved as a 'qualifying CPD activity':
For approval to be granted for a 'qualifying CPD activity' the following evidence is required:
Kaplan Ontrack and pre-assessed content from professional associations will automatically receive approval. All remaining CPD activities will require approval from either the Senior Actuary. Activities will be denied if any of the requirements are not met.
The Kaplan Professional Ontrack platform will be used to record the completion of CPD activities. CPD plans will specify each relevant provider's:
The platform will monitor individual progress and provide reporting.
For CPD activities undertaken and completed outside the Ontrack platform, each individual relevant staff member is required to upload details into Ontrack and submit evidence for assessment and approval to the Senior Actuary.
It is the relevant staff member's responsibility to maintain complete and accurate records within Ontrack.
Monitoring of the completion of CPD requirements by each relevant staff member will be undertaken using the reporting functionality of Ontrack on a quarterly basis.
A relevant provider must comply with the CPD obligations specified in this policy.
Failure to meet the specified requirements requires the licensee to notify ASIC of the relevant providers non-compliance with the continuing professional development standard (922HB, Corporations Amendment (Professional Standards of Financial Advisers) Act 2017).
CPD Policy Version March 2019