Despite opening against a difficult backdrop of further legislative uncertainty through the recent Future of Financial Advice Senate rollback, the 2014 FPA Congress in Adelaide hit a high note for all advisers like me who aspire to be represented for what we truly are: committed, client focused professionals.
This journey towards professionalism has been a struggle for many years – even including my own term as Chairman of the FPA in the year 2000.
Perhaps the words of outgoing FPA Chairman Matthew Rowe summed up this journey and the sentiment best when he said: “Parliament cannot legislate for greatness”. I heartily agree. Yes, the FoFA politics might create an air of uncertainty for consumers reading about it and the political fallout in their news feeds in coming days but there is nothing new in that. Professional planners and their clients will continue to get the job done while the news headlines ricochet across all news media over the coming weeks and months.
In November 1999, as the incoming FPA Chairman, I addressed the closing session of the FPA Congress. In my speech, I spoke about how the only asset any of us have is the trust that our present and future clients place in us. The number of clients and the level of funds under management accounts for nothing if our clients lose trust in us as their professional adviser. Without trust – ultimately – there are no clients and no assets to manage.
In the late 90s we were in the midst of the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (CLERP) from which the Financial Services Reform Act eventually emerged in 2001. However, like today, back then it was abundantly evident that no amount of legislation would improve the image of financial planning and financial advisers unless there was substantial cultural change from all participants – licensees, advisers, product manufacturers and professional bodies.
Cultural leadership
Cultural change requires leadership. Leadership which engenders a belief from within organisations that such change ultimately brings rewards to all stakeholders. At a time when volumes of regulation over almost three decades have failed to address one of the fundamental weaknesses in financial planning – the outrageous inadequacies of Regulatory Guideline 146 – it is the FPA and its members which has led the way in changing the culture of Australian financial planning. In stark contrast to the failure of all that legislation to bring about rudimentary change, the banning of commissions by FPA was well ahead of FOFA; the requirement for, relevant, undergraduate degrees for applicants to the CFP Program is light years ahead of RG146 and the vote by members to disband the Principal Member category several years ago was a decision which clearly marked a change of culture at the peak body.
All these achievements notwithstanding, however, it is the clients who are the ultimate arbiters of value and what’s important in what their advisers do for them. It is their experience of us as advisers and our own pursuit of personal greatness that matters most here. For them, the politics played out in Canberra over financial advice reform probably means very little, perhaps nothing.
Doing it
I wheeled into the Adelaide Congress on a bicycle this year. It was my personal effort to show the giving side of our profession via the Future2 Foundation and its financial support of numerous community based organisations across the nation which give young Australians a second chance at a good start to life. Under the auspices of the Future2 Foundation, the foundation of the Financial Planning Association of Australia, we raised around $120,000 with the ride.
Over seven days I had ridden 1,050 kilometres from Melbourne to Adelaide alongside some 25 other riders and as we rode into the welcome reception at the FPA Congress, we were greeted by an atmosphere of mutual respect and calm confidence amongst the 1500 or so advisers who had gathered in Adelaide this year. I was struck by how different the mood of the Congress was, and that there appeared to be a growing resilience amongst our colleagues to take the outside FoFA machinations in their stride. It was clear that
Greatness is often about what you do, not say.
I witnessed lots of positive ‘doing’ on the road to Adelaide and in the halls of the Congress – all of which gives me great heart that we are finally on our way to being a respected profession. No one made 25 people ride their bikes from Melbourne to Adelaide and no one made all those committed professionals attend FPA Congress 2014. They did it because it was the right thing to do.
If the 2014 FPA Congress is any guide, then our profession is set firmly on a path of future greatness.
– Ray Griffin, Director, AdviserVoice
