AIOFP urges advice community to leverage federal election for policy gains

Recognising that elections are a prime time to influence political action on advice matters, the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP) has detailed its strategy for the campaign.

In a letter to members, the AIOFP’s executive director highlighted that this election, expected to be fiercely contested, could offer the community significant leverage to achieve its objectives.

“We will be targeting the weakest link in each party, the marginal seats where most elections are decided. These are the politicians who are at greatest risk of losing not only their seats after commonly only one term but their livelihood and risk being labelled a ‘failed politician’,” Peter Johnston wrote.

“We will be inviting a number of these marginal seat politicians from both sides to attend our Parliament House conference dinner on 25 November where we will be educating them on what should be done to lower the cost of advice for consumers. Fundamentally we are indicating that if they want us to support them in their marginal seat, they must meet our objectives, otherwise we will be against them.”

The issues the AIOFP is seeking action on include the removal of the Dixon failure from the CSLR compensation scheme, the return of industry conditions for risk advice to pre-LIF times, and the replacement of statements of advice with a document based on an adviser’s own judgement.

Although the group is currently disillusioned with Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones, Johnston said that despite the Liberals’ contrition over their past performance, “We are still yet to decide on who we will be backing”.

“The AIOFP elementary position over the past 26 years is to act in the best interests of our adviser members and their clients, our political support can only be leased, not bought. As we have done over the years, we will change support to those who support our members,” the managing director said.

The winning side, Johnston said, will gain significant support from the advice community, including advisers mobilising their clients to vote for them, a financial boost from the AIOFP, and hands-on assistance from advisers on election day.

“The losing side will get the opposite,” Johnston said.

“If a bipartisan outcome is achieved, the side that supported us first will get the above benefits. It is time to be brutal with our decision making, this political window of opportunity only happens every three years, we must take full advantage of it to meet our objectives.”

Earlier this week, a new poll run by The Australian Financial Review/Freshwater Strategy, revealed that the Coalition is now leading on a two-party preferred basis, with 52 per cent support compared to Labor’s 48 per cent.

This poll mirrored ifa’s recent, smaller survey, which highlighted a significant preference for the Coalition’s candidate for financial services minister over Labor’s current minister.

Among ifa’s 517 voters, 43.9 per cent were undecided, but 240 (46.4 per cent) favoured Luke Howarth as their preferred candidate for financial services minister, compared to just 50 (9.7 per cent) who supported the incumbent, Stephen Jones.

This big gap highlights a clear preference for the Coalition’s candidate over the incumbent, who, despite initial hype, has yet to live up to the promises made to the profession.

On the other hand, Howarth is a relatively unknown figure in advice circles, and as an opposition member, his role primarily involves critiquing the government’s missteps – a task that has been relatively straightforward of late.

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