CFPs named in Westpoint complaints to FICS

A Total of 389 Westpoint-related complaints against 61 members of the Financial Industry Complaints Service(FICS) have been received in total by the organisation — some of them involving Certified Financial Planners (CFPs).

FICS chief executive Alison Maynard told Money Management last week that “a number” of CFPs — a Financial Planning Association (FPA)-branded designation — are included among the 61 members who are the subject of complaints.

“I recognise some of the names on the list as CFPs,” Maynard said, including “some who are or were principal members of the FPA at the time the complaints were made by consumers to FICS”.

Maynard said she was unable to provide “complete information” on the number of CFPs on the list, however, because the FPA does not provide FICS with data on who is or isn’t currently a CFP among its members.

She said that for the same reason she could not confirm whether any of the 61 FICS members on the list who have had multiple complaints lodged against them are CFPs.

“Some of the members may have up to 30 complaints against them, because the likelihood is if they sold Westpoint they generally sold it more than once, but others have only one or two complaints against them.”

FPA chief executive Jo-Anne Bloch also could not confirm how many CFPs are on the FICS complaints list but acknowledged that she is expecting “a few” to be named.

“Bearing in mind that quite a significant number of our practitioner members are in fact CFPs, you would have to expect there would be at least some CFPs involved.”

Bloch said it would be “disappointing if any CFPs were found to have done the wrong thing, but, on the other hand, you can’t just assume that a CFP is immune from failings”.

She added that it would be unfair to “jump to any conclusions just because a complaint had been made to FICS about a CFP”.