AFA CEO assures on association’s solvency

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

6 September 2022

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) is entirely solvent and questions around its accounts are easily explained, according to AFA chief executive, Phil Anderson.

Amid questions posed by former Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals office holder and academic, Dr Adrian Raftery, Anderson has told Financial Newswire that “solvency is not an issue” for the association.

Raftery has raised the issues in the context of the processes around the proposed merger of the AFA with the Financial Planning Association (FPA) announced last week.

“The AFA does not have any debt,” Anderson said., “We have enough to meet our cashflow needs.”

However, he said that it was clear the organisation needed to be conscious of its financial position “down the track”.

On the issue of an entry in the AFA Ancillary Fund 2021 accounts showing the AFA as a $10,000 debtor, Anderson said this reflected money from a sponsor/partner being paid to the AFA Foundation via the AFA.

“The AFA does not and has not borrowed funds from the AFA Foundation,” he said.

Similarly, Anderson said other issues raised were attributable to the past sale of a property owned by the AFA and the handling of what represented a substantial capital gain.

Anderson’s explanation has come as the voting arrangements involving members of the AFA and FPA have taken greater shape including encouraging members of both organisations to attend their respective annual conferences at member rates.

The FPA has told members it expects the merger vote by members to be known before the FPA annual congress but “in either case, AFA members will be invited to attend the Congress at the member price”.

Similarly, FPA members can register to attend this month’s AFA conference on the Gold Coast at AFA member rates with the promise that the conference will include a panel session on the merger proposal, and the board of both associations will be in attendance.

Voting by members of both organisations is expected to be completed by around the middle of November.