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Vanguard to acquire custodian Altruist
|Vanguard will acquire custodian and investment platform Altruist in a bid to expand into the American independent financial adviser market.
FAAA pushes to expand NCA to financial advisers
|Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) said it will advocate strongly to expand the scope of the New Class of Advisers' to all financial advisers, which will currently be limited to only superannuation funds and life insurers.
SMSFA appoints head of professional standards
|The Self-Managed Super Fund Association (SMSFA) has appointed Keddie Waller as the head of professional standards.
UniSuper unlocks close to $15k for members moving into retirement
|Eligible UniSuper members will receive a tax-free bonus of up to $14,700 when they move into retirement phase from October 1.
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Liza McDonald
HEAD OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT
AWARE SUPER
AWARE SUPER
Liza McDonald would have you believe her path from a legal secretary to the head of responsible investment at Aware Super was a matter of good fortune. Her career says otherwise. Riddhima Talwani writes.







Was anybody else surprised when they found out that the CFP is a designation and not a qualification? Since one has to study quite hard for it I am not sure about the distinction. I also never before heard that the CFP was not a qualification - I may have missed it but I never saw such a disclaimer before and I have been an FPA member for a while. Does anybody have any insights about this?
One pointer to the CFP not being a qualification is that a lot of people were grandfathered into it who only had a diploma of financial planning. It is one reason I only ever did CFP 1 (out of CFP 1-4) (to gain the life risk specialist - I presume - designation and not qualification?).
How is the CFP already at a Masters level?
Masters degrees are at Australian Qualifications Framework Level 9.
Graduate Certificates and Graduate Diplomas are at Australian Qualifications Framework Level 8.
The Certified Financial Planner is not even awarded as a Graduate Certificate. Hence its not even AQF Level 8. If it was why wouldn't the Financial Planning Association have got it formally recognised as a Graduate Certificate?
The Chartered Accountants Program is only 5 subjects and is awarded as a Graduate Diploma. Hence all the talk of designations versus qualifications is rather confusing. It's not clear at all why the Certified Financial Planner can't be awarded as a Graduate Certificate at least. With the certifications its effectively 5 subjects or at least 4 subjects (CFP1-4).