“Everyone would know what they are paying to whom, for what.”
Hewison also believes the industry could clean up its act on an educational front. And he’s a big supporter of the FPA and its push to raise standards.
“The next thing, in a perfect world, is to require everyone to be degree-based or equivalent, with some sort of transitional arrangements for people who have been in the industry for a long time; and get really, really serious about becoming a profession and standing up and being counted,” he says.
As the industry matures,“the FPA is going to become more of a standards- and practitioner-related organisation”, Hewison says. He says that since day one,“their main game has been driving professional standards and education standards”.
“There’s been principal and practitioner membership, and that’s linked together harmoniously for most of the time, and not so harmoniously at other times. But probably now that the standards have been driven to where they are – and now of course the CFP has been de-linked from principal membership, so you don’t have to be a member of a principal member – there still is a requirement for financial planning practices to be involved. After all, they are administering or supervising the standards of their advisers, so there needs to be a linkage.
“The really important role now for the FPA is to be a standards organisation, and that’s where their concentration ought to be, and be able to be seen by Government and consumer groups as being that sort of organisation.”
