FPA backs planners, but questions ISN

The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has made clear that while it has issues with the actions of the Industry Super Network (ISN), it does not have problems with financial planners employed by industry superannuation funds – many of whom are members of the FPA.

The chief executive of the FPA, Mark Rantall (pictured), told Money Management his organisation was not in the business of questioning the quality of advice provided by many industry fund planners. Instead, the FPA was targeting the fear campaign that had been pursued by the Industry Super Network, Rantall said.

Rantall had earlier accused the ISN of pursuing an agenda that involved “the elimination of competition and destruction of sound financial advice and financial security for Australians”.

He said he believed the ISN would stop at nothing to “further its self-interested attempts to shut down competition, kill off financial planning services other than its own and extract maximum political advantage”.

Discussing the issue with Money Management, Rantall said the FPA was not questioning the quality of financial planners employed by industry funds because “many of them are FPA members”.

Rather, he said the FPA was questioning what it regarded as the self-interested and political motives of the ISN in campaigning against financial planners who operated outside of the industry superannuation fund regime.