Internal adviser associations such as the Professional Investment Services (PIS) Adviser Council play an important role as “a sounding board in both directions,” says the council’s chairman Paul Wright.
“Its relative importance has probably waxed and waned as circumstances dictate…but certainly we’re very active at present,” Wright says, referring to its most recent teleconference meeting with PIS management. This addressed some proposed changes to the group’s approved product list, “we were floating some changes, getting feedback”.
Other recent situations where the council has displayed its advocacy role was during a PIS project to further refine and develop its software platform, and in helping develop a policy in regard to direct equities.
“We do get down to quite a level of detail in respect to some of these sorts of issues,” Wright says.
Raison d’être
He explains that in the earlier days of the PIS Adviser Council, which was formally established in 2009, it had a few challenges in establishing its identity and reason for being.
However, over time, the council has distilled its role down to four key areas:
• strategy development;
• serving as a conduit for communication between PIS advisers and the licensee;
• providing a voice on issues affecting network members; and
• helping to gauge the sentiment of advisers in the PIS network.
According to Wright, his involvement with the PIS Adviser Council started in 2010. His practice, ODH Financial Planning, which grew out of accounting practice O’Donnell, Hennessy & Co, has been an authorised representative of PIS since it formed in 1999.
“We’ve watched the network grow and shrink, go through good and bad times. We’ve been very loyal to the organisation as a business,” he says.
“I took a view back in 2010 and 2011 that it was time to put something back, hence my election by my peers to represent them on the Adviser Council, and then 18 months ago I was appointed as chairman.”
Everybody knows everybody
Describing how the group is structured, Wright points out that the culture of PIS doesn’t necessarily require an internal advocacy group.
“One of the things about PIS is that everybody knows everybody,” he says.
“Members are elected by their peers in each state.”
Wright says those who hold this position are rotated annually.
“There had always been an intention for a rotation of Adviser Council members,” he says.
“That was never much of an issue, as people would move on anyway, with new members then elected.
“But last year, we decided it was time to formalise the whole thing. We had a spill in August or September, declared all positions vacant, and asked members of the network to vote for an existing or new member. So everyone’s been elected in the last 12 months.
“We’re like delegates, we’re there representing what I call our constituencies. If people have an issue with the organisation, they’ll come to us.
“Sometimes they’ll go direct to PIS…my thinking around that has always been if a practice adviser has a commissions issue, then they probably need to speak to someone in commissions, but if enough advisers tell me, then I need to identify that [with PIS management] as a systemic issue.”
Wright says his experience as something of a go-between between PIS financial planners and the dealer group management has been a largely positive one.
“To their credit, the present management team is very open to feedback,” he says.
“That degree of ‘receptivity’ will differ from time to time, but our current management is anxious to get that feedback.”
