AIOFP to offer external compliance service to all members
The Association of Independently Owned Financial Planners (AIOFP) has created an external compliance review service and will begin to offer the service to its members from 1 February.
AIOFP chief executive Peter Johnston said the association had created a national panel comprised of compliance experts in each of the state capitals to run the AIOFP Compliance Services offering (ACS), with planning practices paying for the service on a case by case basis.
According to Johnston, ACS would reduce compliance costs by three quarters by offering a decentralised model that would offer compliance services in each state where member firms had advisers.
"The service should cost about $20,000 to $25,000 compared with a full-time staff member in each planning business, which can cost $50,000 to $100,000 per year."
The service builds on the compliance review announced by the AIOFP in November last year which was to be conducted by Peter Bobbin of Rockwell Olivier. ACS will continue to pass compliance reviews through Bobbin to provide AIOFP members with the legal privilege protection.
To deal with issues related to capacity, Johnston said the ACS would also use My Dealer Services to provide compliance support services.
Beacon Financial Services, which is headed by Peter Daly who also chairs the AIOFP, has already signed on to the service, which grew out of work conducted by Beacon's former head of compliance Brendan Barratt, who has joined the ACS panel.
Johnston said ACS would be chaired by Frank Smith. Barratt will provide compliance oversight in Queensland. Former ASIC staffers Stephan Kansanczuk and Bruce Keenan will oversee NSW and Victoria/South Australia respectively. Mike Butler, formerly with Australian Financial Services, will also oversee compliance in Victoria/South Australia. Johnston said the panel would work as consultants to the AIOFP which had yet to appoint an expert in Western Australia.
Johnston said each member of the ACS panel were experts in the area of financial planning compliance, but the association had steered away from people with legal backgrounds as it felt compliance had been hijacked by the legal fraternity.
"We prefer to have non-legal people involved in compliance so as to reduce the cost, complexity and fees charged to our members. The legal profession has been using scare tactics to keep advisees paying their fees - and their involvement is why compliance has become complicated," Johnston said.
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