Deen Sanders, Professional Enlightenment of Financial Planning in Australia (PhD Thesis, Central Queensland University, 2010)

"Traditional approaches to the academic consideration of professionalisation have tended to emerge from single disciplinary or at best, inter-disciplinary, approaches to the what, why, and how questions surrounding professions. This research project instead, takes a transdisciplinary apporach to considering how a profession might be defined and established in the Australian Financial Planning sector; in the context of challenging community, regulatory, market and professional conditions for trust in Financial Services that arises from a post 'global financlal crisis' world...The research employed a mixed method approach and a large scale survey model; ultimately identifying that the professionalisation of financial planning is an issue of public import, as the likely best mechanism to address the increasing financial inequality in Australian society and the growing risks inherent in the financialisation of Australian society".

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