FPA, AFA ‘leading the way’ with planned merger

Speaking to ifa, the chief executive officer of the Financial Planning Association (FPA), Sarah Abood, said that while both boards, including that of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA), are unanimous that this is “absolutely the right thing to do”, ultimately, it’s up to the members.

“We’re getting a lot of strong support from members,” Ms Abood said.

“But ultimately, as I said, votes are what counts. For us, we are really keen for members to engage and vote. This is a really important issue, it’s going to impact the future of our profession in a really important way,” she noted.

On Monday, the FPA and AFA confirmed that the vote on the proposed merger would take place on 28 February at Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs) for each association.

While the merger would still take place if 75 per cent of the votes cast by eligible voting members are in favour, Ms Abood encouraged as many members as possible to vote.

“Even if we got 75 per cent of only a few hundred voting for example, it would still go ahead, but it wouldn’t feel right,” she said.

Commenting on the number of associations currently occupying the financial advice space, Ms Abood said the FPA and AFA are leading the way regarding the correct course of action.

“There are a lot of associations but a really large number of us are working together already in many areas. We get together very, very regularly, it would be a rare week that we go by without a number of the associations getting together to discuss matters.

“To me, it’s our obligation to do as much as we can. We don’t necessarily have to merge to still get a better outcome. For the two of us, which are the lead associations, I think it does matter for us to represent ourselves as the united voice for the profession,” Ms Abood said.

Asked about possible future mergers, Ms Abood said the focus currently is on executing the FPA’s fusion with the AFA.

“We need to get this one done. We need to make sure it’s right and it’s delivering for members before we start to think about what might be next.”

Also on Monday, the FPA and the AFA revealed that the full legal name of the proposed merged association will be the Financial Advice Association of Australia, but that the association will generally be known as the “Financial Advice Association” or “FAA” for short.