AIOFP to grow membership tenfold

At the association’s AGM, held during the AIOFP's offshore conference in Shanghai last week, members voted to change its constitution to allow practitioner members for the first time in a bid to capitalise on growing demand for independently-owned financial advice.

AIOFP members have, until now, been the owners and/or responsible managers for non-aligned licensees, but its membership oversees an advice network of an estimated 3,000 individual advisers.

Executive director Peter Johnston told ifa he has ambitions to reach at least 1,000 members and would warmly welcome advisers belonging to independently-owned groups who are not currently members of the AIOFP.

“For too long the independent sector has relied upon parties who are dominated by financial institutional membership agendas to represent their interests,” Mr Johnston said. "This must end.

“We believe [the SMSF Association] should be representing the SMSF sector; AFA the risk; FPA the institutional advisers; and the AIOFP the independents.”

The AIOFP will be seeking professional status under the PSC guidelines so that advisers licensed by independently-owned groups are not required to join other associations in order to be listed on the adviser register.

Incoming practitioner members will be eligible to undertake the Certified Financial Strategist (CFS) accreditation, while also being automatically included in the AIOFP’s Member Protection Fund.