FPA amends Professional Code

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

8 September 2022

The Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) has restructured its Professional Code after consultation with members found the previous rules-based framework to regulate member conduct was too complex.

The move to a one-page, principles-based Professional Code that cut 20,000 words from the previous system now focuses on the “importance and primacy of professional judgement”, with 10 core values categorised under three pillars: Being, Knowing and Doing.

The principles under ‘Being’ include “putting the client first, integrity, objectivity and fairness”; ‘Knowing’ consists of “skills and knowledge and continued professional development (CPD)”; and ‘Doing’ includes “professional behaviour, competence, diligence, and confidentiality and data protection”.

This comes as the Quality of Advice Review continues to scrutinise the various approaches to best regulate the financial advice industry.

“We included promoting a culture of integrity in the code to highlight that ethical principles apply at all levels, including those in senior positions who have the most influence over the culture of their organisation – not only client-facing practitioners,” FPA Chief Executive Officer, Sarah Abood, said.

“This issue was raised by members during consultation on the new Code, who feel strongly that it’s important that ethical behaviour is supported at all levels of an organisation.

“Our members as professionals, expect to apply professional judgement to their conduct and hold themselves and their colleagues to the high standards this entails.”

The new Professional Code prioritises clients’ interests “in line with the requirements of relevant laws and regulations” and ensures members’ actions “are aligned with promoting a culture that supports and requires integrity in others”.

“We take our professional standards extremely seriously, and the FPA has an internal specialist team as well as an independent Conduct Review Commission involved to oversee our response to complaints against members,” Abood said.

“We act quickly when issues are raised, to ensure due process and uphold the standards that our members expect their colleagues in the profession to achieve.”