Around 12% of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) $3 million worth of expenditures in FY21 has been on advocacy of financial advice, as the association continues to respond to Royal Commission regulatory reforms.
However, the proportion likely did not represent its full commitment to advocacy alone, as other expenditures like member communications and events also played a part in industry advocacy and engagement.
This was answering a question on notice as NSW Liberal backbencher, Jason Falinski, asked how the organisation had spent its money.
“I’ll fess up that I want to compare it to some of the advocates in this space who are in receipt of tens of millions of dollars of public funding,” Falinski said.
Marketing and member communication was the activity with this highest expenditure at $730,970, followed by member services and systems ($649,175), conference and events ($641,329), governance and administration ($438,229), and advocacy for financial advice ($387,885).
Phil Anderson, general manager – policy and professionalism, said: “The AFA is one of the most active advocates for the advice sector and profession and it undertakes this vital role without any public funding.
“Our funding comes from membership fees, along with revenue from our events and other services.
“As a profession as a professional body for advisors, our role is to support them and the financial services sector to provide professional advice to Australians across the economic spectrum.”
Anderson said the AFA’s goal was to assist as many Australians as possible to achieve financial security for them and their families with quality financial advice.
“We are a tireless advocate for policy settings that enable the establishment of a fair and equitable regulatory regime, the protects consumers at a reasonable cost,” Anderson said.
“The extensive range of overwhelming regulatory reform measures triggered by the Hayne Royal Commission final report has made this work a huge undertaking for a small organisation such as the AFA.
“At the same time, we remain committed to developing and supporting financial advisers as a profession, and the AFA offers conferences and other events to share best practice and provide other professional development opportunities for our members.”
AFA expenditure for FY21
Source: AFA
