Having fully considered the results of the research, AIFA's Council has decided that as 80% of responding firms were in favour of allowing ‘whole of market’ advisers to remain members, it will set up a separate wing for this category of membership. This subsidiary of AIFA will be called the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).
Chris Cummings, AIFA’s Director General, commented,
"Our members have spoken and have given us three clear messages. First, there must be a body for those who offer exclusively independent advice under the new regulatory definition. Second, we must continue to provide a home for those who survey the whole market for their clients but have chosen not to meet the FSA’s new depolarisation fee charging requirements. And third, those firms who are exclusively tied or multi-tied are not obvious members of our Association.
"The creation of the Association of Financial Advisers as a subsidiary of AIFA allows us to retain our strong brand name, whilst keeping in membership those who offer ‘whole of market’ advice.
"Our industry is changing. Our members have decided that their Association should reflect and embrace those changes as long as we continue to represent only those advisers who put their clients first. This move ensures we remain a strong and focussed trade body able to represent the needs of the advice profession."
The new structure will be formalised in preparation for AIFA’s AGM on 29th November 2005. The status of AIFA’s member firms will be confirmed at the time of their individual renewal dates.
Background
The results and the comments received by responding firms demonstrated that there was a very strong feeling that AIFA should remain primarily focussed on representing and promoting independent advice, but that it should retain those members who were now defined as ‘whole of market’ advisers. The Council therefore decided that AIFA should retain its name and remain exclusively for IFAs but that there should be a separate branch of the Association for 'whole of market' advisers.
This separate wing or subsidiary will sit under and report to AIFA's Council and will be called the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA). AIFA already has a similar arrangement in place for the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI). It is not envisaged that AFA will need to fully replicate AMI's structure (e.g. AFA will not need its own council). This is because AIFA already tackles the broad range of issues which affect advisers who survey the whole market.
