The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has apologised to its members inside the broader Commonwealth Bank group, after some took offence to what they saw as earlier suggestions of endemic unethical behaviour.
In a letter issued last week, as seen by Professional Planner, FPA chair Matthew Rowe, said: “It was not my intention to imply our professional members from CBA should undergo further ethics training already completed”.
“I apologise to any professional members from the CBA Group who felt my comments put them in the same category as those who have not completed this training.”
The FPA member letter in question was sent on 2 July 2014. Among a number of suggestions and comments, it called for the CBA to “fund ethics training for all CBA and Financial Wisdom financial planners.”
Greg Cook, CEO of Eureka Whittaker Macnaught, fellow of the FPA and former chair of the Financial Wisdom Adviser Forum, alluded to “shock” and “rage” while speaking with Professional Planner earlier this month.
Following the early July statement made by the FPA in responding to the CBA’s own apology, Cook said:
“If we thought we were involved with a licensee that had…a lot of continuing education shortcomings or was rife with examples of poor advice, we’d be doing something about it and probably wouldn’t be with that licensee…by definition, we don’t believe that’s so.
“I have had a lot of correspondence from my FinWiz peers…I know a lot of them have written very sterm letters to Matthew Rowe,” he said, adding that many were well regarded FPA members who had received distinguished service awards.”
Responding to these concerns, Rowe’s letter says the FPA “acknowledges the high quality ethics training you have undertaken over the past years and also the required annual training you have had to complete as part of the Financial Wisdom network.
“I acknowledge that you have continuous education programs in place and these meet the requirements placed upon your licensee.
In no way did I intend to undermine the ethics you uphold, as a professional financial planner and FPA member.”
This latest note to members from the FPA chair also acknowledged the difficulties the CBA issue had created for those professional members of the group’s wealth management division.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Financial Wisdom FPA members who took the time to speak with me personally on this matter. These discussions dealt with difficult issues in a respectful and collegiate manner, and in my mind, show the strong sense of professional community amongst our members.”
Well – all this goes to show – is how hopelessly compromised the FPA are.
Let’s be frank, Matthew Rowe’s comments were unwarranted, unhelpful and offensive to the overwhelming majority of Financial Wisdom advisers who act professionally and ethically. At a time when the industry has been under attack it was extremely disappointing that someone who should know better not only failed to defend us but actually asserted that we had some serious shortcomings that needed to be addressed. It’s not an exaggeration to say that his name is mud and it will take a lot more than an email apology before many of us would wish to have him speak on our behalf again. Fortunately we have quality people like Greg Cook within our ranks to speak for Financial Wisdom advisers and the industry more broadly.