In a statement released on Tuesday, FASEA announced that Mark Brimble and Simon Longstaff would continue as part-time directors on the authority’s board, with their new three-year term to commence on 11 April.
The statement said that on behalf of the board, chair Catherine Walter “welcomed the reappointment of Mark and Simon and acknowledged the integral role they have played in the formation and development of FASEA”.
“The board looks forward to continuing to draw on their expertise in delivering FASEA’s important legislative remit,” the statement said.
Dr Brimble and Dr Longstaff are both inaugural members of the FASEA board, with Dr Brimble being a professor of finance at Griffith University and former chair of the Financial Planning Education Council, who stood in as the authority’s managing director prior to the appointment of Stephen Glenfield as FASEA chief executive in 2018.
Dr Longstaff is executive director of the Ethics Centre and holds a number of other independent advisory positions, including on ANZ’s ethics and responsible banking committee and BHP’s forum of corporate responsibility.
Oh goodie!! – they’ve fixed all the FARCE-IA problems with more of the same, over and over for another fun-packed 3 years. They should have accomplished their mission and rid the industry of at least half of all advisers easily by then. It is the classic of ‘putting out the fire with gasoline’ (apologies to David Bowie). What absolute clowns these jokers are. Would be hilarious if so many ‘client best interest’ and advisers were not suffering badly with their nonsense.
Well done Mr Brimble. You have done an incredible job ensuring a nice flow of cash into courses offered at your University. Conflict of interest….
Surely this is a massive case of “fee for no service”????
April Fools Anyone?
And………there you have it folks!
A disgrace
I am absolutely dumbfounded by this move. This was a perfect opportunity to boot some members of this failed board and replace them with experienced, practicing financial advisers who understand the profession and can take us forward. Every measure introduced by FASEA has been a failure, designed to make them look good rather than genuinely improve outcomes for our clients. The Code of Ethics is the greatest insult ever imposed on a profession. It is almost universally regarded as unworkable, has zero support from the adviser community and the fine print is still undecided 3 months after it went into force.
Can the board please explain to all advisers how they would navigate the current market turmoil and economic upheaval with consumers. I suspect not. Academics are fine in theory. But this is real and what we are witnessing in terms of the disruption to finances is real. Not theory. Asleep at the wheel or taking a holier than thou approach is not going to save and consumer. How these folk can be paid anything for creating theory and complexity to a mess that successive government have indeed contributed to is beyond any rational person. Foolish theory will not work. But hey, maybe these theorists would like to explain themselves.
I’d love to see some more details around how these appointments are made. The release on FASEA’s website says that “the government” has reappointed Brimble and Longstaff. Does the government listen to feedback from people who interact with FASEA? Does the government acknowledge some of the difficulties that have occurred with the way FASEA have sought to regulate our industry? Did the government look to see if there were alternatives who could have been better suited to the role?
Some more transparency would go a long way to building trust.