AIOFP approves membership changes

Themembers of the Association of Independently Owned Financial Planners (AIOFP) have voted in favour of a series of proposals to change the group’s membership structure, fees and benefits.

The membership categories of the AIOFP have been changed to ‘commercial member’ and ‘general member’ from its old ‘member’ and ‘associate member’ categories, after a vote was held at the group’s annual conference late last month.

The changes are linked to the increasing profile of the association’s marketing arm, the Australian Financial and Career Consortium (AFCC), which refers companies looking to provide financial planning advice to their employees on to AIOFP member dealer groups.

Commercial members of the association will increase their involvement in the marketing of the organisation through the AFCC by contributing a fee of $1,000 per month, up from the $400 a month charged previously.

As a return on this investment, commercial members will receive superior benefits, gaining up to 100 clients a year and a 25 per cent profit share of the career services, with approximately 50 per cent of the $12,000 annual fee being returned in quarterly dividends.

Both general and commercial members will pay $150 per month, down from the $400 per month fee, which will entitle them to advocacy services, cheaper professional indemnity insurance, compliance and research, and assistance with business planning and sales.

The AIOFP, whose membership is made up of 25 independently-owned dealer groups, also announced last week it had appointed John Lipkiewicz to strengthen its management team.