AIOFP steps up calls for co-ordinated advocacy approach

In the wake of Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones announcing the government’s policy stance on the second and third tranches of the Quality of Advice Review (QAR), which included the addition of a new class of “qualified advisers”, the advice associations have struck a similar chord.

Following the announcement, Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) chief executive Sarah Abood slammed the government’s response.

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“There is little detail available at this stage, but on the face of it, we are deeply concerned at the direction of these announcements,” Ms Abood said.

“Our members fear this could be winding the clock back five years on our profession.”

She said the government’s response, particularly regarding the creation of a new class of financial advice providers, “appears to invalidate the hard work and pain that has been involved in creating financial advice as a profession”.

In his response, Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP) executive director Peter Johnston strongly supported Ms Abood’s comments.

“The AIOFP wholeheartedly concurs with the FAAA comments around the term ‘qualified advisers’, it will create ongoing massive confusion with consumers with who they are dealing with – which is exactly what this term is intended to do,” Mr Johnston said.

The announcement, he said, reinforces the need for a consolidated front among advice associations.

“The lessons to be learned from this blatant charade is the genuine four advice associations need to finally collaborate to convince Canberra and Choice that this term is designed to confuse and mislead consumers,” Mr Johnston said.

“This manoeuvre is not the work of Minister Jones who is consumer-focused, this is the work of the institutionally aligned (and duplicitous) associations lobbying behind the scenes to serve their masters with promises of political donations leading into the 2025 or sooner federal election.

“It is time for the advice community to finally come together and use our combined political strength to our advantage and that of consumers.”

This week, Mr Johnston went a step further in his calls for a unified message from the entire advice profession.

“‘Divide and rule’ and ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ are two classic political strategies that have been used against the advice community and their clients over the past three decades with great effect,” he said.

“The time to neutralise these deliberate, destructive and highly successful ploys is over the next 12 months leading into the next federal election. Make no mistake about it, Canberra has morphed into a re-election mode and that means the advice community must also get its strategy in place.

“We need to engage our clients, raise some cash and look for bipartisan opportunities to lock in our objectives.”

He pointed to the example of the mortgage industry ahead of the 2019 election, which he said collaborated with members to help fund a media campaign “and the politicians backed down regardless of the bank donations behind the scenes”.

“The real reason? The looming 2019 election and only 20 per cent of politicians are in the Pension Scheme, which was eliminated in 2004 – a lost seat is a loss of their wages with no pension to fall back on,” Mr Johnston said.

“The getting together of the few adviser-focused associations to collaborate would be a welcomed sight in Canberra. Politicians only want to deal with two entities at best not the circa 14 associations muddying the waters over the years with different agendas and some with duplicitous divide and rule intentions in mind.

“We can no longer have the institutionally aligned and accounting-focused associations thinking they are representing advisers, it is not helpful to our cause, our profession and our perception in Canberra. Although they may have a minority component of advice in their ranks, they should stay with their own specific discipline and only get involved by invitation.”