Advocacy top priority following AFA-FPA merger

On Tuesday, members of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) voted in favour of the proposed merger of the two associations at extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) held in Sydney.

Speaking at a media briefing following the merger, FPA chief executive Sarah Abood said that advocacy would be the main focus for the combined entity once the merger is complete.

“[Advocacy] is the number one issue that members have raised with us. I think it’s probably the number one benefit of combining the two associations that we want to have a more powerful united voice to government,” Ms Abood said.

“And there’s quite a bit under that heading right now. The Quality of Advice Review (QAR) being key. But there are a number of other areas that we’ve been engaging with government on behalf of members for some time, including professional standards. I hear there’s a bit happening with super today as well, and there’ll be plenty more.

“We’ll be engaging with members very deeply on all of these issues, and that is a really strong priority for the association.”

Sam Perera, president of the AFA, added that while advocacy is a particular priority in the wake of the QAR final report, and upcoming consultation on education standards, coming together as a single entity is also important.

“We have a major road show that we are jointly doing together in May. That’s an important demonstration to our members of the entities coming together and creating the new association,” Mr Perera said.

“We still have to carefully manage the transition to get AFA members to come over to the new association and to successfully wind down the AFA, and then in November it’s a congress of the joint associations, which will be a really big event as well.”

According to a statement issued by the groups, across all resolutions, an average of 96.5 per cent of AFA votes and 96.7 per cent of FPA votes were in favour — well above the required 75 per cent.

The groups confirmed that some 3,000 members, including 500 proxy votes, took part in the merger vote.

Ms Abood said the groups were hopeful that all current members of both associations would rejoin the combined association.

“The real test of it will be through the renewal phase. We’ll be opening up membership for renewal in April/May, around that time frame of this year, and members hopefully will choose to join the new association,” she said.

The full legal name of the new association will be the Financial Advice Association of Australia Limited.

Legal completion is expected to take place on 3 April 2023, with a transition period said to run from April to June, including adoption of the new name and constitution, finalising and launching a new brand and logo, new board formation, and membership transition.

The transition is expected to be complete by 1 July 2023.