AIFA will permit ‘restricted’ advisers to be members, but not those who “recommend the products of a single provider”, director general Stephen Gay said.
The organisation will no longer be called AIFA.
It follows a strategic review of the body which Gay said assessed “what it does, what it costs, who funds it and where it adds value”.
He said the decision was “not taken without reservations” but that it had strong support from existing members and the AIFA Council.
The new-look AIFA would not turn away existing members “simply because the FSA changed the goalposts on independence”, he added.
He said the organisation will now be in a position to represent advisers at firms with more than one advisory model and will, under its new guise, be more capable of wielding greater influence on a Europe-wide level.
“Non-independent offerings dominate in Europe,” he said. “If we are not careful, we will represent the faction of the advisory community which is only prevalent in one of 27 countries.”
Gay, who joined AIFA as director general late last year, said the organisation will now adopt a college-type structure – including an IFA-only ‘college’ – and that its new mission statement is to “champion the interests of professional financial advice firms in the UK”.
There will be an elected Board that will govern the organisation.
“Policymakers want to be able to go to an organisation which represents a broad faction of the community.” Gay (pictured) added. “AIFA is evolving to meet the needs of its members.”
The new direction taken by AIFA represents a clear move away from that outlined in its original manifesto, published shortly before its 1999 launch.
That document reads: “It is considered vital that IFAs have a trade association for IFAs rather than be part of a wider grouping such as an association for all insurance intermediaries or part of an association with product providers.”
