How many advisers will be members of the FAAA?

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

3 July 2023

The Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA) is expected to reveal today just how many members have been retained following the merger of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).

Members of the FPA could become members of the FAAA by simply renewing their membership while members of the AFA needed to initiate a transfer up until 26 June.

While not providing Financial Newswire with numbers, FAAA chief executive, Sarah Abood said that membership of the new, merged entity had been building nicely through July and that, in the case of FPA member renewals, were ahead of the same time last year.

The picture with respect to AFA members opting into the new organisation was less clear but is expected to be clarified by the FAAA today.

According to analysis conducted by WealthData the FAAA’s potential membership drawn from those on the Financial Adviser Register who were members of the FPA or AFA is 8,759 although WealthData principal, Colin Williams, noted that some people not on the FAR were capable of being members.

The analysis also points to the fact that the greatest number of existing members, 6943, are operating in the full-scale advice arena, with the next largest cohort being 841 operating s investment advisers, and 482 who are working within superannuation funds.

The total number of advisers currently on the FAR stands at 15,801.

Williams said he believed that some leakage of members seemed inevitable.

Abood said that the FAAA would look to make accommodations for advisers who have been overseas or otherwise unable to renew or activate their membership.