More than 8700 financial advice practitioners have renewed their memberships with the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) with additional practitioners also expected to renew or transfer from the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).
FAAA chief executive Sarah Abood said the healthy membership renewals represent a strong endorsement of the merger between the FPA and AFA, completed earlier this year.
“The end of the financial year is the first big milestone for membership. This year it was the critical date for windup of the AFA, and many of our members prefer to pay in the previous financial year in any case, for tax reasons,” Abood explained.
“By 30 June 2023, over 8700 members, including over 80 per cent of eligible practitioner members, had renewed across both organisations.
“That such a large percentage of advisers have transferred or renewed their membership is a real vote of confidence in the newly formed FAAA. We are also seeing a number of reinstatement and new membership applications coming through,” she noted.
The FAAA revealed that 1563 heritage members from AFA had successfully transferred to the FAAA, while 7138 practitioners and non-practitioners from the FPA chose to renew their memberships, showing a significant bump in these types of member renewals compared to previous years.
Abood assured AFA members the FAAA will continue to offer the opportunity to transfer and retain their membership start date, but practitioners were reminded renewals after 15 July would incur a late fee.
“We encourage all members to renew as soon as possible. The more members we have, the more strength we have to create better outcomes for the financial advice profession,” she said.
“This is particularly important in advocacy, where there are plenty of issues on the FAAA agenda: including the unreasonable hike in the ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) industry levy, the continuing consultation with the government on implementing the recommendations of the Quality of Advice Review, the legislation of the experienced pathway and many more.
“We are also very focused on re-growing our profession, with major campaigns highlighting financial advice as a great career choice planned for later this financial year.
“Having a unified voice for the profession, representing the majority of financial advisers in the country, gives us a greater chance of achieving the changes our members are looking for,” she concluded.