Last week the FPA revealed it was nearing completion of its application to be accredited by the government’s Professional Standards Council (PSC) as a “professional association”, following the parliament’s recommendation that “professional association membership” be made mandatory for practising advisers.
AFA CEO Brad Fox told ifa yesterday that although his association has not traditionally supported compulsory membership, it supports efforts to raise professional standards and will play ball should the PJC recommendation be enacted by the government.
“Obtaining approval of a professional standards scheme is a complex and demanding process and the expectation from the PSC is that it will take at least 12 months,” he said.
“We have commenced discussions with the [PSC] and subject to the government’s response to the PJC report, we would take this pathway.
“We are working through all the implications as a matter of priority and can adapt to meet whatever standards are required of us to support our financial adviser members.”
AIOFP executive director Peter Johnston has revealed his association will also seek professional status with the PSC, so that its members “are not forced to join other associations to stay in business”.
“We intend on complying with whatever the guidelines are to satisfy the requirements,” Mr Johnston told ifa, adding, however, that the details are yet to be released.
However, the PJC also recommended that any group seeking to become an accredited “professional association” should allow only individual practitioner members, not corporate members, meaning that – should the government abide by the same definition – both the AFA and AIOFP may need to adjust their current structures as both permit licensee or other business entity members.
The comments come as the AIOFP announces it will be accepting individual practitioner members for the first time since its launch in 1998, in response to the growing ranks of non-aligned advisers.
Read Susie Munro’s article below if you haven’t yet. That’s the way to think about educating members of the public about planning. Well done Susie!
P.S. I have shared
Never ever will i be an FPA member again. Was in the early 90’s when they actually did something but not now. They re simply a spruiker of expensive courses and hold this industry to ransom at any cost to us just to promote their membership and course flogging. The FPA has forgotten who they should be representing and has been the smiling assassin of this industry for too long
[quote]If it doesn’t lead to consumer awareness, would it be fair to say a different strategy needs to be implemented?
If someone has fresh ideas on alternative strategies that could be implemented who at the FPA is the person to contact?[/quote]
Here’s some I prepared earlier – http://www.sixpencemedia.com.a…
Logged in Patrick. The adverts look very nice, but activity needs to lead to achievement.
If it doesn’t lead to consumer awareness, would it be fair to say a different strategy needs to be implemented?
If someone has fresh ideas on alternative strategies that could be implemented who at the FPA is the person to contact?
[quote name=”Patrick Canion”]
Just log on to the member’s section of the FPA webpage and you see the full details of the April 2014 advertising campaign. Plus in October/November there was additional advertising specifically around CFP.
[/quote]
Yeah, I saw all of that, in IFA magazine, Money Management, etc, primarily in adviser reading materials. I saw it a handful of times in other media too, but clearly it would have caught my eye as I am a CFP. It did not catch the eye of consumers (most dont read FR or ‘Money’, etc) and fact is, no-one has ever asked what qualifications I have, nor what they mean. Others may have differing experiences, but I have never received a single tangible benefit from 15 years of FPA membership, other than an annual tax deduction for my membership fees (which still leaves me ‘net’ out of pocket)
If only one organisation is mandated then kiss our industry goodbye…. or should I say the non-bank side.
I agree with others and resigned from being an FPA member and thus lost CFP….how a post-nominal can be “owned” by one organisation is beyond me but they were clever in doing it. I do hope the AFA and AIOFP get the accreditation quickly should the need arise. In the meantime, its all about the client relationship not the so called professional body.
Will log in.
Love the tough talk Patrick. Fair call. More of it…
Matthew and Dave
Just log on to the member’s section of the FPA webpage and you see the full details of the April 2014 advertising campaign. Plus in October/November there was additional advertising specifically around CFP.
Or don’t log in, have a whinge here instead.
[quote name=”Dave”]…I’ve never been asked by a single client what my qualifications are nor what the letters after my name mean…[/quote]
Same here.
If anyone from the FPA is reading this – please do something about this. The community has no idea what CFP stands for – if they do they probably think it’s Commonwealth Financial Planning – because allllllllllllllllll last year when Adele Ferguson was dragging Comm Fin Planning through the press, they continuously used CFP to describe Comm Fin Planning… ‘our’ trademark. Still makes me angry…
I’ve been with FPA since I joined the industry in 1999 and have been CFP since 2006. That’s somewhere in the order of $15,000 in membership fees over my career so far and I’ve not yet seen a single tangible benefit from it. I know they do a lot “behind the scenes” but with all the new costly time consuming regulation we must adhere to and the public/consumer view of planners in general, one has to wonder just what ‘behind the scenes work’ has actually involved and more so, what it has achieved? (if anything)…
I believe my CFP studies helped me learn a lot before the advice I was giving was comprehensive and ‘deeper’, but any similar studies would have achieved that anyway. I’ve never been asked by a single client what my qualifications are nor what the letters after my name mean. Clients buy into me, not my credentials, and that’s how it will always be, people will do business with people they like/trust.
Hi,
“Veteran Adviser” having been around for 35 years have been a member of the FPA in the past, could not see the value , and got somewhat disillusioned about where they were heading. I do not take it personally re not meeting the criteria,as it is a fair question , but believe the FPA is not the one and only organisation , I personally feel the AFA does a better job ,,
The second last paragraph is confusing. Does this mean that – because the FPA calls practices and licensees “FPA Professional Practices” and “FPA Professional Partners” respectively – that these are not memberships?
Combined with FPA’s various deals with super funds, I hardly think that they are any less (or more) influenced by these groups than they would be if they were called members.
Hmmm…. or is that that you just might not meet the criteria for FPA membership & is more a case of the FPA Not having you Rod?
I would Not join the FPA as long as I am a Planner, more than happy to join AFA etc, I know many planners who feel the same