The chief executive officer of the Financial Planning Association, Mark Rantall, has announced he will step down from the association he has led since 2010. He will be succeeded by the FPA’s current general manager of policy and professionalism, Dante De Gori.
Rantall’s tenure will end on March 1 next year. At the FPA Professionals Congress in Brisbane today Rantall was awarded life membership of the association. He will remain on the board of the FPA as a non-executive director.
FPA chair Neil Kendall said it was notable that Rantall is the first CEO of the FPA who is also a Certified Financial Planner. De Gori will be the second.
“You can see the difference it makes when your CEO understands what it is we do, is committed to what it is we do,” Kendall said.
“Mark brought passion about financial planning to the FPA management and team.
“Mark has been running the role for five years now and he’s been tireless. There’s no time of day that Mark is not available to take calls or deal with issues. Mark tells me he goes on holidays; he just doesn’t tell me when. When I ring him and he’s walking up a mountain in Noosa, he just carries on as if he’s at work. I do worry about the heavy breathing, but he tells me not to panic.”
Kendall said that Rantall had elected not to renew his contract with the FPA so he will “effectively step down from his role as CEO on March 1 next year”.
“Mark is going to pursue a career as a non-executive director and has in that capacity accepted a role to continue with the FPA as a director on the board,” Kendall said.
“I think this is an appropriate time to thank Mark for the work that he has done, for the leadership he has provided, for the team he has built. Please join with me in recognising Mark as we award him life membership of the FPA.”
Before joining the FPA, Rantall was Dean of Advice for National Australia Bank, after a six-year stint as managing director of NAB-owned licensee Godfrey Pembroke.
Under his guidance, the FPA has restructured into a member-only organisation that is now financially independent of product manufacturers and institutions. It has significantly raised the entry level requirements for membership and has established itself as the pre-eminent association for financial planners in Australia.
In tandem with former chair, Matthew Rowe, the FPA was a leading player in the development and refinement of the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) regulations and has played a leading role in the development of higher ethical, professional and education standards for financial planners.
Many of the recommendations produced by a Parliamentary Joint Committee inquiry into standards mirrored a 10-point plan developed by the FPA under Rantall, and were recently endorsed in the government’s response to the Financial System Inquiry.
