Overwhelming support for FPA restructuring

As the countdown to an historic Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) member vote enters its final days, exit polling at the association’s national roadshow suggests overwhelming support for its restructuring proposal.

The chair of the FPA, Matthew Rowe, says the proposal has motivated members unlike any issue in recent memory.

“This has been such a long time coming for a lot of members,” Rowe says.

“Now they’re seeing this is within their grasp. So far, from our exit polling, 90 per cent of those who give us the feedback have said they will vote ‘yes’.

“What we’re seeing already is a huge [proxy] voter turn-out. And what we’re hoping is that if the vote is successful, with such a large turn-out, it isn’t just a ‘yes’ vote, it’s a mandate.

“It gives us a lot of confidence around the idea of becoming a professional body for financial planning in Australia.”

Proxy voting closes at 5pm today (Tuesday, April 5). The final results of voting will be announced on Thursday in Melbourne, following an extraordinary general meeting of members.

The restructuring proposal represents the most radical overhaul of the FPA since the International Association for Financial Planning (IAFP) and the Association of Investment and Financial Advisers (ASIFA) were melded to form the FPA in 1992.

If approved, it would create, for the first time, a professional association that is focused solely on individual practising financial planners. Under such a structure, the FPA’s Code of Ethics and Rules of Professional Conduct would be enforced and policed at an individual level.

It would also mean that financial planning practices could no longer claim membership of the professional association unless more than half of the firm’s planners were individually members of the FPA.

And it will remove direct institutional involvement from the governance and direction of the association.

Rowe says it is critical that membership of the FPA be meaningful, both from a professional viewpoint but also in the eyes of the community.

“This is resonating [with members] because they want this recognition of their profession in the community,” he says.

“They genuinely want this change. This has the potential to galvanise our membership, because our membership has been looking to have a common purpose and a common goal.

“One of the key things that has resonated with members is that they now have a better understanding of the difference between a membership body and a professional body, and what a professional body looks like.”