Almost half of AFA team to depart ahead of FPA merger
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has detailed the members of its board and leadership team who have decided not to transition over to the new entity.
The move over to the newly merged Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA) was expected to happen at the end of June following a successful vote from AFA members and members of the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) at the end of February.
It had previously been announced that Sam Perera, AFA president, would not be moving across in order to focus on his own business after three years on the board.
The association has now also detailed the six other departures it has seen from its 16-strong board and leadership team.
From the board, this included AFA Treasurer Samantha Robinson, South Australia and Northern Territory director Jawad Ahmad, and Western Australia director Stephen Knight.
The three individuals plus Perera would remain on the AFA board until the AFA entity was wound up in the third quarter of 2023.
From the AFA’s leadership team, departures included Candice Spence, general manager for marketing; Matthew Wallis as partnership manager; and finance manager Andrew Cooke.
Remaining leadership team members, membership and marketing manager Will Burton, events manager Melissa Favaloro, member services officer Hayden Baulch and manager of education, policy and professionalism Caz Garrard would join the FAAA.
The association’s AFA Foundation and AFA Investment Fund would also be wound up as part of the transition over the next three months.
Regarding the AFA Foundation, the organisation had agreed to join the FPA’s Future2 Foundation, alongside the Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF) Association. This would mean Future2 was the charitable foundation of choice for financial services professionals.
“Future2 have been doing incredible work at a grassroots level, assisting many worthy charities or causes with their Grants program over many years. Consolidating foundations will allow more Australians to benefit from the generosity of donors,” said AFA Foundation chair David Slovinec.
Regarding membership, all AFA members who had paid for a membership period that extended beyond 30 June 2023 would get a credit towards their fees with the FAAA or a refund if they opted not to move.
Members would receive an invitation to join the FAAA around mid-May.
Research by Wealth Data found that if all AFA and FPA members voted to join the FAAA, its membership would represent over half of the Financial Advisers Register.
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Laura Dew
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I was hoping as an FPA merger that the leadership at the FPA would change... However it was never a merger....but a collapse and takeover...unfortunately the culture of the FPA has historically been aligned to product manufacturers, large banks and AwareSuper and that culture is still in place. Seems like we've just kicked the can down the road.
These departures come as no surprise.
If there's a redundancy package on offer, why would some take it.
Both organisations separately failed to represent their rank and file members when dealing with a Federal LNP coalition over the past 10 years or so.
The smart ones are bailing out because they will be even more ineffectual against a Labour government and their "union" handlers.