AIOFP. Hate Speech Legislation and how much power advisers DO NOT HAVE

A member yesterday suggested I had better get my vitriol out on what Platforms have done to Advisers before the new Hate Speech Legislation receives royal accent – and he is probably right!

Here we go……

Over the past 40 years in our industry Financial Advisers have been treated like the ‘junk yard’ dog, kicked around and fed trash by Lawyers, Accountants and Politicians. [apologies to the few good ones on our side….]

A member also reminded me yesterday about the treatment of Advisers by CFS over the Dover Advice fiasco fallout from the Royal Commission….CFS terminated the Adviser arrangements, stopped the fees and encouraged clients to seek another Adviser – then gave Kelly O’Dwyer a seat on their Board.

Let’s don’t forget how many Advisers were offered shares in the Netwealth IPO after giving them their clients to build the business and making a certain family billionaires…..not many if any and they have NO former Advisers in their Executive or management ranks to this day.

Below is an email I prepared a few weeks ago which will give you plenty of reasons why the banning of innocent Advisers is so wrong and what we can do about it.

Specific detail on our plans will be out shortly, but this is a good start.

Regards.

Peter Johnston | Executive Director
Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals
Suite 416, 480 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000
p 1800 111 203 d 03 9863 7574 m 0418 857 621 www.aiofp.net.au

Hi, some good 2026 news

Year 2025 could have been historically the most destructive period for the Adviser Profession, even more devastating than the LIF/FASEA/Grandfathered Rev ban epoch under the Frydenberg/O’Dywer/Hume regime – but thankfully we have been saved by Minister Mulino’s CSLR proposed policy amendments, a great outcome for our Profession.

As previously announced, once the MIS fraternity are included in the CSLR calculations the Adviser liability is significantly diminished and we see no reason to challenge the legislation in the High Court. Again, Minister Mulino deserves great credit for his CSLR deliberations and proposed action.
Some not so good 2026 news

The Shield/First Guardian [SFG] failure now eclipses CSLR as the major dilemma facing our Profession over the medium term. It is amazing how literally a handful of rogue Advisers can cause so much damage to consumers and the circa 15,000 Adviser Profession market’s image. It has unfortunately put our Profession back at least 7 years in Canberra over trust perception.

Another serious revelation emanating from the SFG fiasco is how much power Advisers DO NOT have with their preferred administration platform around client control and communications. Very few of us actually read the PDS and understand its ramifications until it is too late. Control of clients is paramount to operating a successful practice.

The audacity of Macquarie and Netwealth to poorly treat 99% of Interprac’s authorised Advisers who had nothing to do with SFG is astounding. You may recall only 3 Interprac Adviser Groups used the SFG products, but these organisations banned the other 300+ SFG ‘nonuser’ Advisers from using their respective platforms.

This is an outrageously arrogant outcome that reminds all Advisers of why some use SMSF and similar structures to retain control of their clients FUM and keep predatory Institutions at arm’s length. Advisers must seize back control of their own clients; there is no doubt the location of Client FUM will now play a more significant role with Practice valuation calculations going forward. Client security is a foundation necessity of operating a successful practice.

These Institutions conveniently forget that Advisers refer THEIR clients to the platform only to be treated with distain and disrespect in return. They treat Advisers clients as if they own and sourced them, they deal directly without any consultation with the Adviser and can now ban the Adviser from transacting with their OWN clients – the only good news about this revelation is it has being exposed.

This fatuous display by the Institutions should not be tolerated by the Adviser community, it sets an uncertain dangerous precedent going forward. The definition of fatuous is a vain and haughty display of superiority…..an appropriate description of the players involved if there ever was one.

Considering an Advisers client base is the very core of the practice and its future value, it makes commercial and strategic sense to have your clients FUA placed into structures where you the Adviser controls the process, that’s why consumers come to see you in the first place. Why direct or leave your clients FUA with an organisation that treats Advisers and consumers with such contempt without legal protection?

A solution for Client Security

It is now clear that Macquarie/Netwealth can decide to inhibit an Advisers ability to deal with their own clients and do the same to Consumers wanting to deal with their Adviser. This tawdry situation needs to be addressed upfront to avoid any nasty unexpected future outcomes for the Advisers practice. Its not so much what is in the PDS is the problem, its what is NOT in the PDS to protect Advisers that is the problem.

The AIOFP wants to propose the following strategy for Member consideration.

The Proposal

We are currently in early negotiations with highly credible platform Administrator options that will provide an AIOFP WHITE LABEL wrap platform solution with at least comparable functionality/pricing to all other retail platforms but it will have a distinct point of difference –

• the proposed wrap will have a Consumer/Adviser ‘friendly’ PDS where Advisers will always have access to their clients.
• the AIOFP will maintain an Adviser Committee that controls all client communications and negotiations between Member clients and the platform management.
• Preferential pricing and exclusive functionality.

The AIOFP will negotiate a fee payable from the managers margin to maintain the Adviser committee and market the Wrap to its members and the market in general. This role will assist the AIOFP’s future funding whilst delivering a vital service to its Members and their clients.

To summarise

the AIOFP wants to use its scale and past experience with platform solutions to assist Members to get the best platform administration price/functionality outcome for their clients and ensure Members retain control of their client base. Client security, price and communications control for Members are the priorities of this strategy.

US Industrialist Henry Ford once said in the 1930’s – ‘Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success’

The proposed venture will not be viable unless we get positive feedback from members to proceed to the next level of negotiation with the Manager. We will be surveying all members shortly to ascertain support for the initiative.