Neil Kendall has been a board member of the Financial Planning Association for four years, so he expects his transition to the position of chair will be about as seamless as such a transition can be.
Kendall formally succeeds Matthew Rowe when Rowe’s term expires at the FPA Congress in Adelaide on November 19. Under Rowe’s leadership, the FPA has successfully been restructured, defined an agenda based on higher standards of education and conduct, become financially independent of any and all product manufacturer support, and tirelessly championed the development of a public-interest-first financial planning profession, even – or perhaps especially – when that has put it at odds with the interests of large financial institutions.
Kendall says the face of the chair will change, but the face of the association will not. He says the key message he wants to get across to members is that “the FPA is on a journey and the change of chair doesn’t change the journey”.
“We will continue on the professional journey,” Kendall says.
“There are already 10,000 of us who are part of this professional community, and our job is to continue to grow that professional community.
“And we have to remember that is this about people, and not lose sight of that among all the other things that go on – and our job is to make a meaningful, positive difference in the lives of our clients.
“I’ve thought about this because we are pushing the professional education agenda and those sorts of things, but the key message about this is: it’s not about me.
“One thing I’d like members to engage with is that the FPA is ‘we’. We 10,000 people who go out there every day and do financial planning. I am one of them; I have a degree qualification; I am a Certified Financial Planner; those sorts of things. But it’s about the whole community of 10,000 people who are, in the main, degree-qualified, Certified Financial Planners as well. So I do not think my credentials are necessarily that important in the flavour of where the FPA is going.”
Kendall’s firm, the Brisbane-based Tupicoffs, is an FPA Professional Practice, and is the holder of the FPA Best Practice awards in both the CFP and Associate Financial Planner (AFP) categories. It holds its own Australian financial services licence.
Earlier this year Kendall signed what he described as a declaration of independence after Tupicoffs met all legislative requirements to be able to call itself “independent”, as defined by the Corporations Act.
This definition means the firm has no links or affiliations with product manufacturers; is not remunerated based on the volume of funds placed; and receives no commission payments from product providers.
At the time, Kendall said he believed that this structure is “the future for financial planning in Australia”.
“Independence allows us to provide genuinely impartial advice with no conflicts of interest,” he said.
“Clients continue to tell us when it comes to choosing a financial planner, independence from product provider influence or incentive, is the most sought after attribute but the hardest to find.”
Kendall says he has “worked in all facets of financial planning – from a large bank, in an institutionally aligned licensee, in a boutique and now in a practice that can call itself independent”.
“So I’ve been in all parts of that chain, and I have a good sense of the differences and the similarities, and I have an absolute conviction that giving good advice has nothing to do with the employer business model,” he says.
“It’s all about personal commitment. It’s not about the employer business model.”
Kendall also runs a service called Financial Rescue, which he describes a service that “helps people who have had bad advice to recover losses”.
Through this service, Kendall has seen plenty of bad advice.
“But I’ve seen a lot of good advice as well,” he says.
“Interestingly, Financial Rescue doesn’t see just bad advice. People come to financial Rescue who’ve had good advice and don’t even realise that. But [through] circumstances, including the Global Financial Crisis, they say, ‘I lost money, so that must be bad advice’, which of course is not the case.
“So you see plenty of cases that come along where you say, well, this is great advice; it’s just so happen the timing was unfortunate, but no one was the wiser for that. They’ve listened to your goals, they’ve tried to address your needs, they’ve listened to the level of risk you want to take and it’s all on track – it turns out it wasn’t a great time. But there’s nothing wrong with the advice.”
Kendall says Financial Rescue deals with “that very small sliver of people who’ve had bad advice”, whereas his role with the FPA is to make sure “we all get on the right journey”.
“We all understand good advice, but because I think the industry is focused on let’s talk about bad advice we lack that definition: what’s good advice?
“People say it’s if you get 2 per cent above market, or this or that; but that’s all irrelevant to me. Did I make a meaningful, positive difference? As a result of coming to see me – or any other financial planner – is that person meaningfully improved? That’s good advice.
“Yes, you’ve got to meet the legal standards. Yes, you’ve got some particular forms you’ve got to fill in. but that doesn’t make good advice. It’s that meaningful component that I’ve been harping on about for 10 years: a meaningful, positive difference.”
