The corporate regulator has acknowledged that an eight-week crash course is an insufficient qualification to become a financial planner.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) was responding to a grilling by Nationals Senator John Williams during an estimates hearing in Canberra on Wednesday.
The senator has pursued ASIC over what he believes is its failure to adequately address the collapse of various investment funds and the misconduct of some planners, including those linked to the Commonwealth Bank.
It was "outrageous" that someone could walk out of the shearing shed, do an eight-week crash course and become a financial planner advising someone where to invest millions of dollars of an inheritance or life savings, he said.
"Surely the standards must be lifted to become a financial planner," Senator Williams put to ASIC officials.
ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said he strongly supported improvement in the sector's professionalism.
"We see a move to tertiary-level requirements as desirable down the track," he said.
The hearing comes at a time when the Abbott government is trying to water down Labor's financial advice laws.
Asked for his thoughts on the laws, ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft said a change in culture could not be regulated.
"My message to advisers ... they need to focus on winning the confidence of Australians," he said, adding it was "very sad" that only one in five Australians used an adviser.
ASIC senior executive Greg Kirk told the hearing that appropriate and adequate procedures were now in place at the Commonwealth Bank.
But that did not mean there would not be people getting poor advice from time to time.
"That's why people can come and complain to ASIC," he said.
Labor Senator Mark Bishop queried Mr Kirk's comments.
If he took a car to a mechanic or bought a suit from a tailor, you would expect the service to be right 100 per cent of the time, he said.
"No one writes letters to me about cars or suits ... (but they do write) about the quality of service they still receive from the Commonwealth Bank."
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