FPA needs to address disclosure, says BFPPG

The Boutique Financial Planning Principals Group (BFPPG) has endorsed the Financial Planning Association’s (FPA’s) proposed new strategy, but noted there were still some issues the association needed to address.

The FPA proposed to its members last month that only individual planners be given the right to vote, flagged the introduction of higher membership criteria, and presented a new marketing campaign.

BFPPG president Claude Santucci said he supported the proposed changes, but added that the FPA still needed to address some issues around disclosure of potential conflicts of interest — an area neither the Government nor the FPA had given the prominence it needed, he said.

“A financial planner who is employed by an institution, working for a company that predominantly has that institution’s product on its Approved Product List, may very well be conflicted,” Santucci said.

“And at the very least the consumer should be made aware of those potential conflicts,” he added.

As for the proposed marketing campaign that the FPA said would better the image of financial planners in the eyes of public, Santucci expressed support — but noted that the campaign lacked generalisation about the profession as a whole.

“I think there are some very good financial planners that are not necessarily members of the FPA,” Santucci said.

BFPPG expects a slight boost in its membership once the FPA excluded licensees from the right to vote.