Legal notice

By registering the Financial Adviser Exam (FA Exam) through the ACER Registration system, you enter into a legal agreement with the Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd (ABN 19 004 398 145) (ACER) which includes:
- the terms and conditions on the ACER Financial Adviser Exam website;
- this notice, and;
- any reasonable directions given by ACER staff in the administration of FA Exam whether on the day of the test or by written or oral communication regarding exam-day conduct, integrity checks, security, logistics, and safety.

(Legal Agreement).

Nothing in this notice or the website terms is intended to exclude, restrict or modify any rights or remedies you may have under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) including the Australian Consumer Law, or any other applicable law that cannot lawfully be excluded.

The Legal Agreement includes the following requirements:

• you must submit your application for the relevant exam cycle as stated in the key dates section of this website's homepage;
• you must pay the exam fee of AUD $1,500 per sitting;
• subject to the deferrals section, if you register to sit the exam and pay the fee, your registration is only applicable for the exam cycle you registered for;
• to cancel your application to sit the exam, you must apply within the appropriate deadlines detailed in the refund terms;
• you must ensure the personal information you provide is accurate and current including correctly entering your personal details, including your name and date of birth. If you need to update your personal details, you must send a request to the financial adviser exam team at faexam@acer.org. Please note that it is not possible to change your personal details on your statement of results after the exam has been sat and exam results have been released for the relevant exam cycle;
• you can sit the exam only once during any given exam cycle. You must present a valid exam admission ticket and valid identification to sit the exam. You must comply with the exam misconduct policy;
• if you have a disability or other health-related needs that might interfere with your ability to sit the exam in the standard manner, you can apply for reasonable adjustments when you complete your exam registration. Note that reasonable adjustments do not carry over between exam cycles. If you have previously applied for reasonable adjustments and still require adjustments for any subsequent re-sits, you must submit a new application with your current registration;
• ACER may refuse, suspend or cancel a registration (including after payment) where it reasonably suspects the registration is fraudulent, misleading, not bona fide, made in breach of the website terms, or not received within a specified registration period. Where practicable, ACER will notify you and provide an opportunity to respond before taking such action;
• while ACER takes reasonable steps to provide the exam at the scheduled time, schedules may change or be disrupted due to circumstances outside ACER’s reasonable control (for example, technology or internet issues). If an exam session is disrupted, compromised or cancelled, you may be required to re-sit the exam at a time specified by ACER. To the extent permitted by law, and subject to any non-excludable rights you may have (including under the Australian Consumer Law), neither ASIC nor ACER is liable for any costs or expenses you incur as a result of a re-sit.

Privacy statement

The Exam is administered for the aims of assessing the practical application of advisers’ knowledge in the following competency areas:  

• Financial Advice Regulatory and Legal requirements (including Corporations Act chapter 7, AML, Privacy and Tax Agents Services Act (TASA) 2009)
• Financial Advice Construction – suitability of advice aligned to different consumer groups, incorporating consumer behaviour and decision making
• Applied ethical and professional reasoning and communication – incorporating the Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics 2019 and Code Monitoring Bodies

In the course of candidates registering for and undertaking the Exam, The Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd (ABN 19 004 398 145) (“ACER”) may collect candidates’ personal information. Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, such as a name and date of birth (“Personal Information”). ACER will only collect, store, use and disclose a candidate’s Personal Information for the purpose of administering and reporting on the Exam (“the Purpose”). If candidates do not provide their Personal Information they may not be able to undertake the Exam which may mean: the Aims are not achieved, with possible significant consequences for a candidate’s registration as a financial adviser.

ASIC's privacy policy can be reviewed on their website.

ACER, in pursuing the Purpose, may collect a candidate’s sensitive information, for example, health information if reasonable adjustments are required by a candidate to undertake the Exam.

By ticking the box, during registration for the Exam in the ACER portal, YOU CONSENT to ACER collecting, using, storing and disclosing relevant sensitive information as specified in this Privacy Statement. Should a candidate have any queries concerning or not wish to give this consent, please see section below about ‘Your rights’.

In pursuit of the Purpose, ACER may disclose relevant Personal Information (including sensitive information) to:

• government or statutory bodies with an interest in the Exam including ASIC;

• medical or other professionals for the purpose of assessing any sensitive information; and

• where ACER is required to do so by law, to government agencies, or individuals appointed by government, responsible for investigating and resolving disputes or complaints connected with the Exam.

ACER will not disclose your personal information for any purpose other than those described above unless permitted or required by law.

ACER may transfer some of your Personal Information (but not any sensitive information, such as health) outside of Australia as specified in the ‘remote proctoring’ section below.

• Personal Information will be provided to ProctorU, ACER’s current provider of remote proctoring for the purpose of account generation to sit the test. ProctorU is a company based in the United States. Personal Information that is provided to ProctorU may be stored outside of Australia. You may view ProctorU’s privacy policy at https://www.meazurelearning.com/privacy-policy; and

• In pursuit of the Purpose ACER may transfer to ProctorU some of your Personal Information such as any adjustments you have been granted to your exam sitting conditions as a consequence of you using ACER reasonable adjustments procedure. For the sake of clarity no health information is transferred.

In compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“the Act”) ACER has taken steps, reasonable in the circumstances, to ensure ProctorU complies with those Principles.

ACER will abide by the Act.

You have the right to:

• Inspect your Personal Information;

• Request amendment of your Personal Information; and

• Make a complaint in respect of a breach of your privacy.

To exercise any or all of the above rights please review ACER’s Privacy Policy which sets out the processes of how you may attend to the same.