With the Future of the Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms kicking off today, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) members have been at the forefront of preparations for the implementation of the new legislations.

Member feedback from Bulletproof Financial Planning, an FPA initiative to support members in the lead up to the FoFA and through the reforms, has highlighted satisfaction with the FoFA campaign with record numbers attending events held regionally and online.

The Bulletproof Financial Planning initiative comprised of three elements:

• Webinar series attended by over 3,200 planners
• Over 1,800 registrations to 36 regional roadshows
• Over 11,000 views of the online toolkit

Mark Rantall, CEO of the FPA said: “The FPA launched the ‘Bulletproof Financial Planning’ campaign in response to research showing that over half of financial planners cited FoFA compliance as a main challenge. We believe, from the overwhelming attendance figures and positive feedback we have received from members, our members are in good shape to comply with their obligations under the FoFA reforms.

“ASIC has previously announced that they will take a facilitative approach towards compliance with FoFA for those planners making a genuine attempt to comply. We encourage members to continue to use the resources available to enable themselves to continue to provide best practice advice to their clients under the new FoFA regulations.

“With any changes to a profession, difficulties will occur, however we will continue to support our members through this important time. We also look to the Inaugural Professionals Congress on 17 and 18 October as an opportunity for the FPA community to have peer to peer discussions about any obstacles that may arise in this transition year,” concluded Rantall.

FPA members have been transitioning to Fee for Service since 2009 and made the move at the end of 2012. The FPA also announced over two years ago that new practitioner membership would be restricted in future to those that hold, as a minimum, an approved University degree.