FASEA mostly funded by the major banks

According to its business plan for FY18-19, FASEA will receive funding from eight contributors under a funding agreement which binds the following parties:

• ANZ
• Bendigo Financial Planning
• CBA
• Macquarie Equities
• NAB
• Suncorp-Metway
• Westpac
• AMP

The document was released on the Treasury website as one of its freedom of information (FOI) disclosures.

“The funding agreement is based on a formula to calculate amounts due per quarter from each funder based on relative adviser numbers. Total funding provided is $3.9 million per year,” FASEA said.

FASEA revealed its total income until the end of FY21 is about $15.7 million.

On the expense front, the largest expense item was set for administering the adviser exam, with almost $5.9 million to be spent up until the end of FY21.

After that, $2.3 million will be allocated to remunerate the board, while $4.4 million will be set aside to remunerate executive and support staff.

About $2.2 million will be spent on ‘standard overheads’, with other notable expenses including setting education standards and accrediting courses ($117,612), setting professional year and CPD standards ($50,000) and developing the code of ethics ($25,000).

In November 2018, ifa revealed that FASEA paid a total of $370,641 to its nine board members, as well as $219,090 to its former chief executive Deen Sanders for his seven months in the top job from 18 September 2017 to 30 April this year.

Adrian Flores

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.

You can contact him on [email protected].