Financial services associations: strength in numbers
Two interesting and welcome events occurred in the financial planning industry last week — the Financial Planning Association (FPA) agreed with the Association of Financial Advisers (FPA) to stand together on regulatory reform and the FPA then reached similar agreement with the Self-Managed Superannuation Professionals Association of Australia (SPAA) on policy and professional development.
The two events can and should be interpreted as the evolution of a very necessary coalition within the financial planning industry and one that, if successful, will ensure the sector is seen as talking with one voice on the key issues affecting the operations of the industry and the commercial viability of financial planning practices.
But no one should be so naive as to suggest that the arrangements cemented between the three bodies mean they have abandoned the core policy elements that have given them their differentiation. The FPA and the AFA will continue to disagree about some elements of adviser remuneration, and SPAA will continue to have views that set it apart from both the FPA and the AFA.
However, in the aftermath of the financial planning industry finding itself out flanked on the question of intra-fund advice, the co-operative and consultative approach signaled by the three organisations should be welcomed by financial planners.
In circumstances where a round-table of industry chief executives has identified broad support for a co-regulatory model for the financial services industry, and some Government figures, including the chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the financial services industry, Bernie Ripoll, have indicated similar views, the industry needs unity on the key issues.
If co-regulation is the answer, the bodies acknowledged as being genuinely representative of the sector need to work together to ensure higher standards are achieved and the best interests of the industry are met. They should adhere to the old political truism: ‘Disunity is death.’
— Mike Taylor
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
Recommended for you
In this week’s episode of Relative Return Insider, hosts Maja Garaca Djurdjevic and Keith Ford take a final look at the lay of the land ahead of the federal election as the latest polls predict a Labor victory, and what that could mean for Australians going forward.
In this week’s special edition of Relative Return Insider, we bring you outgoing Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones’ keynote from Momentum Media’s Election 2025 event, followed by a Q&A focused on the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms.
In this week’s episode of Relative Return Unplugged, Dr Vladimir Tyazhelnikov from the University of Sydney’s School of Economics joins the show to break down the shifting sands of global trade dynamics and attempt to understand the way US President Donald Trump is employing tariffs.
In this week’s special episode of Relative Return Unplugged, we present shadow treasurer Angus Taylor’s address at Momentum Media’s Election 2025 event, followed by a Q&A covering the Coalition’s plans for the financial services sector.
