PAA, IFA to boost collaboration

The PAA and IFA say a combined conference next year is the start of closer collaboration between the two associations.

Tuesday, October 14th 2014, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

They announced yesterday that they would co-host the National Adviser Conference next June, instead of their two individual annual conferences.

PAA chief executive Rod Servern said it made sense to work together to add value for members.

IFA president Michael Dowling said conferences were becoming even more important to advisers as the CPD requirements on them increased.

He said the PAA and IFA had decided recently to look at how they could be more effective. “We have plans to work on more effective lobbying together and try to share PD. It’s an escalation of collaboration.”

Members regularly asked whether the two planned to become one organisation, Dowling said, but it was not something that was being considered immediately.

He said resources were better spent on other things than working on a merger.

“With the review of the FAA coming up, it’s better to spend time on important things that add value for advisers. Whatever happens in the future happens.”

Severn agreed there would be more collaboration, where it made sense to pool resources, such as for conferences and PD days. “It offers the benefit of scale.”

The PAA has many more RFAs than the IFA, which is mostly made up of investment advisers. “They all need to be trained,” Severn said. “We both want to raise the professional bar so there is synergy between the two organisations in that respect.

He said it was likely the FAA review would introduce more requirements for RFAs. “This only helps with that requirement.”

About 600 delegates are expected at the conference.

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