Members of the united association have made their views clear – they want the Financial Advice Association to put advocacy at the forefront of its priorities.
Ahead of the first stop on the United Association Roadshow in Hobart on 5 May, FAAA chief executive Sarah Abood tells Professional Planner member feedback suggested enhancing advocacy to Canberra.
“For existing members, what they say to me really directly is that they want to be a member because they want to have a voice in the future of the profession,” Abood says.
“They expect the FAAA to be doing that and taking the united voice clearly to Canberra and the regulators in order to be an effective, efficient profession that delivers for consumers.”
The association is currently focusing on the Quality of Advice Review proposals and the experience pathway. On the advice review, Abood differed slightly to what was suggested by the Joint Association Working Group open letter which supported all the QAR proposals.
“[The QAR] is something that doesn’t have unqualified support,” Abood says.
“We’re supportive of the package and the principle – that advice can be extended more broadly – however, we do think to work that proposal is going to need some guardrails. We don’t support it being pushed through with no guidance and with product issuers whomever they like with whatever qualifications they like.”
Abood’s mention of guardrails echoes comments made previously by JAWG co-member, The Advisers Association CEO Neil Macdonald, who argued further safeguards were needed for the QAR proposals to succeed.
“While we broadly support the Quality of Advice Review recommendations, we believe great care must be taken before implementing some of them, or we may face a back-to-the-future scenario that did not serve Australians well,” Macdonald wrote in a media release earlier this month.
Surveying for consensus
Likewise, the FAAA has accepted the experience pathway will happen but plans to seek member feedback during the consult process.
“We’re going to survey our members again,” Abood says. “We initially surveyed them when the proposal was put out and there’s no doubt there’s a lot of different viewpoints in our membership about the proposal.”
The experience pathway has become one of the most polarising issues within financial advice and Abood says there has been a lot of feedback via various channels from members who feel strongly on both sides of the debate.
“We want to get a temperature check for all our members and ensure all our members have an opportunity to be heard,” she adds.
Abood concedes the experience pathway was an election promise that was due to happen, but the association still wanted to make sure any negative impacts can be minimised.
“How can we ensure it achieves what it needs to achieve it terms of the transition of the profession? Our position was very strongly that there needs to be some limits on it.”
Member drive on the roadshow
This year’s roadshow will feature a refreshed format which Abood says was based on feedback from members and previous attendees.
“It’s a full day of content, the CPD itself is not sponsored so the content is based on the best speakers and experts available from around the country,” Abood says, adding there will still be great networking opportunities.
“It’s fantastic that we’re able to get to 10 locations as well because we weren’t able to get to as many last year, Covid-19 being the challenge that it was. We have close to 1000 advisers around the country now [attending the roadshow], so we’re really excited about it.”
There will also be a drive to engage current Financial Planning Association and Association of Financial Advice members to renew their memberships with the combined association.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make that process smooth and talking about the benefits of membership,” Abood says.
For membership pricing in the merged association, Abood says no-one will pay more for membership in the FAAA compared to the equivalent category in their previous association and some members should see a saving.
All memberships will be structured around the financial year – AFA members previously were on a rolling 12-month basis with different dates during the year.
If an AFA member has paid for membership beyond 30 June, that will be refunded either by a discount on the first year FAAA membership or as a refund when the AFA winds up if they don’t renew.
However, Abood adds there will be more details covered when renewals open in a couple of weeks.
Additionally, the association will continue its work on re-growing the profession.
“The numbers are nowhere near where we need them and want them to be,” Abood says.
“We have to ensure we’re telling the story of what a great profession this is, not just to people doing their HSC thinking about a degree but also to career changers.”
Abood points to teachers or even actuaries as the many talent pools available to the financial advice profession.
“They might have been teachers or actuaries or all sorts of things. That’s a group that we think are great options to become financial planners because of the life experience they have,” Abood says.
Listening to ABC radio in Melbourne this morning which covered the impending changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the Pharmacy Guild was on the front foot with their talking points and members texting and calling in arguing why the proposed changes were bad for the public. Yet when the financial planning profession was decimated over the last 4 years there was nothing like the campaign the Pharmacy Guild are conducting on behalf of chemists right now. I have said for years the profession needs to emulate the Pharmacy Guild and the AMA otherwise we’ll get what the politicians dish out to us every single time.