IFA marks out its future
The Institute of Financial Advisers is taking a bullish approach to its position in the market and clearly marking out its territory.
Thursday, August 2nd 2012, 7:50AM 
4 Comments
President Tony Vidler told delegates at the institute’s recent conference that it was well on the way to becoming a professional body.
Using a set of international standards, he said the IFA fulfilled 13 of the 16 characteristics recognised to make a professional body.
One of the key things which is missing, and is outside the institute’s power, is to have the professional recognised in legislation.
Vidler said that is something the institute was working on achieving.
He also said that the international marks, CFP and CLU, which the IFA has the rights to manage in New Zealand are :enshrined” in the code of professional conduct for advisers.
“This is not co-incidental,” he says.
He says they are the standards that should be applied to every adviser in the market place.
Over recent years while advisers have been moving into the new regulatory environment there has been a significant turnover in membership. “Literally hundreds of members have left and hundreds more have joined.” Overall its membership was sitting around the 1,100 mark.
One key issue the institute is working on is finding a new chief executive to replace Peter Lee.
Vidler says it has started a search for a suitable person, but it may take some time, maybe four months, to fill the role.
He said the institute has just completed a strategic review and the person for the CEO role maybe a different style of person to Lee.
Now that regulation is embedded, “the organisation now has to start pushing forward strongly,” he says.
He says one of the institute’s goal is to make sure that “every single professional financial adviser will be a member” by 2017.
“We will be the professional standards leader.”
In his rallying call to members Vidler said that “we are making the game. We are taking the profession forward.”
“Others will follow,” he said.
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Comments from our readers
After the introduction of the current legislation I left the IFA. On balance, of the two bodies I found them to be reactive to the introduction whereas the other body was proactive. One took a wait and see approach and the other put out professional guideline booklets and was holding national meetings. Unfortunately I wasn't seeing the leadership that is referred to on one side.
The CFP and CLU mark was no longer relevant to me with the new legislation. My view is that as it's an international mark, no one body should have rights to it's appropriate allocation.
The average client has enough trouble understanding the acronyms AFA, RFA and QFE nowadays let alone knowing who the IFA or PAA etc. are and what they do. Professional bodies are to be applauded for their efforts in improving standards amongst member advisers but they are overstating their worth if they think more than a fraction of the general public even know they exist. A blunt statement yes but fact.
For the established adviser then the past camaraderie of the annual professional body conference and subsequent 18 holes played simply won’t cut the mustard anymore. At the end of the day we are all running a business. In business if you are paying money for something that isn’t adding a return to your bottom line why logically would you keep paying for it? You wouldn’t.
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Unfortunately international designations such as CFP and CLU are unrecognized outside of the financial services industry and currently provide little incentive to Members.