AMP will make it mandatory for all planners within its AMP Financial Planning and Hillross advisory groups to be members of a professional association, allowing them to join one or more of a number of industry bodies.
AMP director of financial planning advice and services, Steve Helmich, said AMP would not restrict membership to one association but would allow planners to join CPA Australia, Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Public Accountants, the Self Managed Superannuation Funds Professionals’ Association of Australia, the Association of Financial Advisers, the Financial Planning Association and Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia.
“We aim to have a broad church because we have planners who have broad backgrounds, but the implication is that we are interested in having our members participate in professional codes of conduct and standards,” Helmich said.
“If people are part of a profession then we believe they should be part of a professional association which gives them a powerful voice for their profession when they work together.”
Helmich said AMP had yet to set a timeframe for compliance with the requirement, as it was working through the professional codes of each body and was awaiting their approval by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
According to Helmich, the need to be part of a professional association will be easily met by three quarters of AMP advisers as they are already members of the nominated associations, with the remainder required to comply in the near future.
“In percentage terms around 75 per cent are members of an association, and we tell all new entrants of the Horizon academy that we require association membership as well as encouraging them to achieve Certified Financial Planner (CFP) status as soon as they are able since it is the global standard for financial planners,” he said.
“Across the five groups we have 1100 CFPs, which is about a fifth of the Australian total and about a quarter of the planners in our networks.”
Helmich stated that while AMP would push for all planners to join an association, there might be exceptions.
“The only reason we could see for someone not joining an association would be religious or cultural reasons, and in that case we may investigate alternative codes of conduct and professionalism.”
