This has been a year in which much of our energy, at an association level, has been necessarily focused on the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) and MySuper reforms. We have invested heavily, in terms of both time and money, in order to ensure that the voices of our members, and the clients they serve, are heard. It has been an exhaustive and frequently exhausting process which involved preparing submissions, consulting with Government, lobbying politicians around the country, deciphering what the proposed reforms mean for our members and their clients, airing the views of our members in Canberra and via the media, agitating for amendments that will result in better outcomes, while all the time keeping our members in the loop. Throughout the debate, the AFA has played the role of educator to politicians, the media and the public so that the debate can be understood and informed views can be formed. The FoFA and MySuper reforms have the capacity to dramatically change the landscape of financial services – and in our opinion, not necessarily for the better. With so much at stake, it has been impossible to stand on the sidelines while the reform debate waged. But in all the noise, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of some of our other significant achievements and of the great work being done daily by our advisers in the field. The AFA has had unprecedented registrations for our national conference, our July national roadshow and the GenXt roadshow. We have raised significant funds for Make-a-Plan, an advertising campaign to be launched in 2012, which is designed to raise public awareness of the work we do for our clients and our communities. It will show the value of advice and seeks to grow the market. We have a new brand and a new social media presence. We are also close to launching a new offering in the education of advisers that will be a game changer.
We have also had outstanding nominations for our premium awards – the AFA Adviser of the Year Award, the AFA Rising Star of the Year Award and the AFA Excellence in Education Award. We have successfully launched a new award championing our female advisers, which attracted an amazing 81 nominations. Since the launch of the AFA’s Female Excellence in Advice Award in May this year, 124 women have signed up for AFA membership. We believe this is a direct result of the launch of the award – the only one of its kind in the industry. Overall, membership of the AFA has increased by nearly 35 per cent in 2011. This year also marks the AFA’s 65th anniversary. We were born with a different name back in 1946 – but we had the same key objective: to help and support our members in the role they take building, managing and protecting the wealth of their clients. One of our early members, Dugald Mitchell, who came on board as a member of the NSW branch of the Australian Life Underwriters and Claims Association in 1971, has contributed to a book published to commemorate our anniversary. In his submission to the book, Dugald recognises a number of key challenges, including education and remuneration.
In Dugald’s words: “Make everything a student does count (even half-day seminars).” He believes that education for advisers must fit in with the Australian tertiary education system via an interested university. The AFA has commenced working with key partners on this initiative. Advisers must be paid appropriately for the highly skilful job they do. We couldn’t agree with him more and echo his sentiment that there seems to be a belief among Government and the regulators that advisers don’t need to be appropriately reimbursed. Speaking with around 40 years’ experience in the industry, Dugald says: “It seems to me extraordinary that… by creating rules like the ones now proposed by the current government… less insurance will be sold, and so there will be more government costs through more pensions being paid out. This just does not make sense to me.” It doesn’t make sense to us either, and so we will continue our efforts to influence the reform agenda – but we will also continue with what we regard as our core business: leading, supporting and inspiring our members. Financial advice done well transforms people’s lives – we look forward to sharing that aim with the financial advice community into 2012.
