Garry Crole funds AIOFP membership of 400 InterPrac advisers

The Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP) is boosting its member count by some 400 InterPrac licensed financial advisers following a deal with Garry Crole.

The Sequoia director and chief executive officer of InterPrac, who is also a founding member of the AIOFP, will finance the advisers’ membership for a period of six months, following which, the advisers will have a choice to maintain their membership or opt out.

In a statement on Thursday, Mr Crole said: “The best investment a consumer can make is to invest in advice from a professional that has both a legal and ethical obligation to act in their best interests.”

“The AIOFP is dedicated to reducing red tape and supporting an advice industry that has reduced alarmingly in numbers over the last four years and our decision to enrol our advisers as members is our investment in tomorrow’s next generation of advice professionals.”

The addition of 400 advisers is expected to boost the AIOFP’s member count to 4,000, said the group’s executive director, Peter Johnston.

“We are now entering the re-election phase of the political cycle and taking our membership from 3,650 to over 4,000 advisers will be noticed by all political parties. Four hundred advisers with, say, 200 clients each translates into an additional 80,000 votes at the ballot box, a significant number in a close election,” Mr Johnston said.

“We may not be orthodox with our approach, but we get the job done; the old association ‘sit on the fence’ political mentality only ends up with getting ‘shot’ from both sides.”

The AIOFP disclosed that only two InterPrac advisers opted not to take up the offer, indicating that the advisers were given a choice of whether or not to become a part of the group.

“This strongly indicates the ‘divide and rule’ political tactics employed by the institutions over the past 30 years to polarise the market are now rapidly diminishing – and that is a good thing for the advice community,” Mr Johnston said.

Sequoia this week said its net profit after tax (NPAT) surged 4,317 per cent to $27.8 million, driven by the sale of 80 per cent of Morrison Securities.