TheAssociation of Independently Owned Financial Planners (AIOFP) has attacked theFinancial Planning Association(FPA) regarding its stance on smaller dealers and handling of recent industry criticism brought by the Australian Consumers’ Association (ACA).
In a statement released toMoney Management, AIOFP chief executive Peter Johnston says the board and dealer members of the group “do not believe the FPA can adequately represent independently owned boutique dealers with the public debate on fees, brokerage and how boutique dealers should be remunerated”.
Johnston says the FPA is now skewed towards institutionally owned advisers and subsidiary dealer staff and the 35 per cent of independently owned advisory groups in the FPA are not being adequately represented by it.
“It is simply not possible to serve many masters with multiple objectives and conflicting views. We believe this view is widely held by the other boutique dealers in the marketplace,” Johnston says.
Johnston says boutique dealers have opposing views on many issues compared to the major financial institutions, which he claims heavily fund the FPA and as such the association “cannot possibly represent both views”.
“The FPA’s benign comments on theASIC/ACA survey and recent views reported in the media reinforces our position,” Johnston says.
The AIOFP is the first group to publicly criticise the FPA after the handing down of the recent ACA report and the FPA has responded to the claims with chief executive Ken Breakspear stating it has always been committed to boutique planner members.
Breakspear says boutique principal members equate to more than 75 per cent of its principal membership base and the FPA has maintained a relationship with these members from the board level through to advisory committees and chapter groups.
He says the FPA recognises the role small advisory groups have in the market, but says the planning industry needs to present a united front.
The AIOFP’s comments are part of a greater push by the group for small dealers and advisers to gain a greater voice in the industry.
As such, it is suggesting the formation of a national executive committee made up of representatives from the AIOFP, theAssociation of Financial Advisers(AFA) and the Boutique Financial Planning Principals Group (BFPPG) to deal with issues relating to small dealer groups on a federal level.
