The Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) has announced it has updated its professional code (the FPA Code) to support its members in “continuing to uphold the highest standards in their dealings with clients, other professionals, and regulators”.
A total of 20,000 words have been axed from the group’s previous rules-based system into a one-page, principles-based code, organised under three pillars:
- Being – the FPA Code outlines the principles of putting the client first, integrity, objectivity, and fairness
- Knowing – skills and knowledge, and continued professional development (CPD)
- Doing – professional behaviour, competence, diligence, and confidentiality and data protection.
The FPA said a key element in the code is that members must be “placing the client’s interests first, in line with the requirements of relevant laws and regulations, [as] is a hallmark of professionalism” and that members’ actions “are aligned with promoting a culture that supports and requires integrity in others”.
FPA CEO Sarah Abood reiterated the importance of the requirement, saying it goes beyond acting ethically between members and their clients.
“We included promoting a culture of integrity in the code to highlight that ethical principles apply at all levels, including those in senior positions who have the most influence over the culture of their organisation — not only client-facing practitioners,” Ms Abood said.
The FPA head added that the move to a principles-based regulation mirrors the approach to industry regulation proposed in the upcoming Quality of Advice Review (QAR).
“We take our professional standards extremely seriously, and the FPA has an internal specialist team as well as an independent Conduct Review Commission involved to oversee our response to complaints against members,” Ms Abood said.
“We act quickly when issues are raised, to ensure due process and uphold the standards that our members expect their colleagues in the profession to achieve.
“This issue was raised by members during consultation on the new Code, who feel strongly that it’s important that ethical behaviour is supported at all levels of an organisation.”
The move comes just a week after the FPA announced its intention to merge with fellow industry group, the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA), with plans to officially launch in 2023.
In a media briefing, FPA chair, David Sharpe, said that both groups are committed to delivering a “stronger united voice for the profession”.
It was also noted that the current intention is for Ms Abood to take on the role of CEO in the merged company, while AFA CEO Phil Anderson would work as general manager.
It is expected that members of both associations will vote on the proposal by the end of this calendar year.
20,000 words scrapped – so members fees covered the cost of those words originally going in and the. again to cut them back out! Yep, that’s efficient use of resources – thanks Dante! The gift that keeps giving!
Kind of seems like the FPA is struggling for relevance now. As the premiere industry group they presided over the decimation of the adviser force as well as FASEA, LIF, grandfathering and plenty more. God help us if the FPA is the best we can do as an industry
Are the executives and staff held to the same standards? From a long term member’s perspective and someone who has had a long conversation with Ms Abood, it would appear not.
Complete waste of time. How much of our membership fees did they waste on this? It’s great that its succinct, but it just parrots the concepts in the industry Code of Ethics and in reality will never be practically used for any purpose, by anyone, ever. Why would it when the industry wide code says all the same things and is the only really enforceable code. Red tape for the sake of red tape. We don’t “need” to do what we’ve always done… How about some fresh thinking from the FPA. And a diversion of membership fees from projects like this (which should have taken someone 30 seconds to move it to their trash folder on the desktop) into projects that actually matter and move the needle, like eliminating SOA’s or dramatically reducing them to something user and business friendly.
This new code is vague enough to allow the FPA to banish/blemish/investigate/harass members who speak out against it.
Exactly. It isnt about representing members, it is about controlling disenters.