Prompted by its 60% growth in membership, the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has launched several key initiatives to unite members, share experiences and influence the future of the profession.
These initiatives include the AFA Community of Practice Engagement Bootcamp (“Bootcamp”), adviser informed working groups on Professional Standards, Policy and Advocacy, and Life Insurance Quality Advice, as well as a Financial Literacy Committee.
AFA President Deborah Kent says these initiatives developed over the past three months and now in progress, will ensure the AFA remains the most member-engaged professional body in financial services.
“These actions represent the most significant developments in over a decade with respect to member engagement, collaborative decision making and grassroots energy from our membership,” says Ms Kent.
“These initiatives will drive the policy, professionalism and member engagement activities of the AFA for years to come.”
Next week approximately 50 practitioner members of the AFA will participate in the AFA Bootcamp, a leadership training and planning symposium conducted over two days to build the engagement strategy for AFA members for the next 18 months.
With the majority of attendees at the Bootcamp being practicing financial advisers, the AFA has ensured that the pressure points being felt by advisers at the coal face of providing life-changing financial advice will be pivotal in the planning and development of future professional development and networking activities. National and State leaders of the AFA’s five key communities of practice: Genxt, Inspire, Leaders Forum, Practitioners and the AFA Foundation are also included in this group.
AFA CEO Brad Fox says Bootcamp is a practical demonstration of the Adaptive Change message the AFA shared at the recent National Practitioner Roadshow that attracted record speaker ratings from the more than 1,600 delegates.
“Adaptive change is a framework that recognises the paradigm for providing financial advice has changed through legislative, political, societal, economic and technological forces,” says Fox.
“It shows that developing the solutions for the future must come from the real world experiences and experimentation of today’s advisers. As an advice community we need to collaborate and share these experiences to speed up the evolution of existing practices to stay ahead of new competitors and community expectations.”
While recruiting for some of the committees and working groups is still being finalised, the contribution of members is an essential aspect.
“After two years of tremendous growth these initiatives will ensure that the future leaders of the AFA and our profession will have the opportunity to emerge, to participate, to grow, and to make a difference, ” says Ms Kent. “We have opened the door to more members than ever before to have an active and participatory role in determining the engagement of the AFA.”
