Finally an announcement

Monday, October 2nd 2006, 7:24AM

It's a pleasure to finally get a press release from the financial planners association, especially the one which arrived Sunday naming the appointment of the new chief executive.

As some readers will know I have been less than impressed with how the association has gone for the past year and a bit.

One area of criticism is around its communications. In my view they have been unprofessional and poor.

I must admit I laughed yesterday when I read this:

"We are delighted to have David on board and confident that he will continue the excellent work Ross has been doing in reconnecting with key stakeholders and leading us towards co-regulation."

The association's communications with some key stakeholders, such as media, has been poor and there are some questions around internal comms.

Here are some examples. Yesterday's press release was the first in over a year, even though a huge number of things have been happening in the industry and the association has changed its name.

I figured if you change the name of your organisation, you communicate it to key stakeholders. Nope. Not in this case. We've seen nothing yet, hence we occasionally use the FPIA name.

You would also think with all the other changes going on in the industry and to the sector the association would at least send out some comments, but again nothing has been seen.

Some of the internal communications have been questionable too. Take this for example.

"We (the IFA) have been asked to appear before the Select Committee hearing into the Taxation of Investments on 23 August. I see our invitation to appear is probably our first ever before a Parliamentary Select Committee, and says a lots about the quality of our submission, and of the reputation of our Institute."

This is so misleading it's not funny. Firstly no-one gets asked to present to a select committee. You tick a box on your submission saying you would like to be heard. Therefore appearing before a select committee has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of a submission. Plenty of poor submissions are heard in person. Therefore it's got nothing to do with the reputation of the institute.

For the record there were more than 3700 submissions made on the bill, and so far more than 50 submissions have been heard. From memory several hundred will be heard.

There are so many oral submissions the committee his holding hearings around the country - which is a little unusual for a bill like this.

To me comments like this to members are an example of what's known as "spin" in political circles. Putting a gloss on everything to make things look good.

Let me make it quite clear, TPL and I have been big supporters of financial planners and we have done a lot over the years to help. Indeed we still support planners and their firms.

However, it isn't our job to be unquestioning cheerleaders for the association. We will tell the story as we see it.

From my perspective a change is welcomed and I look forward to a far more constructive relationship with David Hutton.

PS: This issue and others were brought up with a senior board member in a lengthy meeting earlier this year, however nothing has happened since.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please email them through to me at Blog@goodreturns.co.nz

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