AIOFP urges LICG to keep pressure on AFA board

In an email to members, AIOFP executive director Peter Johnston said the recent actions of the LICG have greatly assisted momentum for change and that the AIOFP was glad to see advisers standing up for themselves amid LIF reforms.

“Their continual pressure on the AFA board to finally admit they were wrong with supporting the FPA/FSC institutionally-biased position is welcomed and should be intensified,” he said.

“The pressure must be maintained to achieve change. Retreating to our suppressed and manipulated past position should not be an option.

“For too long the advice community has been divided and ruled by the institutional lobby. Now is not the time to back down,” Mr Johnston said.

The recent events should be a lesson for advisers when choosing to join an association, he added.

“What the advice community should learn from this experience is that being a member of any entity/association that is infiltrated and dominated by any particular faction is a politically dangerous and life-threatening [path] to tread,” he said.

“It simply just does not make commercial or political sense for any adviser to fund and politically support any entity that can and will act against you at the critical times.

“The next time you consider paying for an association membership or access to a designation, ask yourself who is going to benefit from your money and political support. Surely it should only be you, your practice and your clients and not third parties working against you.”