Concerns over the focus, governance and decision making of the FPA board have prompted board member Rob Pedersen to resign.
“I resigned yesterday morning [Monday 7 June]. I’ve lost confidence that the FPA board really understands how best to represent advisers,” Pedersen told InvestorDaily.
Among his main concerns, Pedersen pointed to issues surrounding the FPA board’s approach to governance.
“I didn’t have a clear involvement in the recruitment of the new CEO [Mark Rantall]. I was informed that they were down to the two candidates by reading [media reports]. Once I read about it I had no say about the two candidates whatsoever.”
Pedersen, who had been an FPA board member since November 2007, said he was not informed by the FPA board regarding a matter of parliamentary privilege in relation to the Ripoll inquiry was also a concern.
“The parliamentary privilege was raised during the Ripoll inquiry but not discussed or raised in any FPA board meeting,” he said.
“I was extremely disappointed not to be provided with any information on the matter despite repeated requests. When I read it was when everyone else read it, so that’s another governance issue.”
Pedersen, a founder and director of Matrix Financial Planning Solutions, said the FPA board’s fixation on remuneration rather than quality of advice and narrow vision on education were also a concern.
He said another contributing factor behind his decision was the stalling of a proposed merger between the FPA and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).
“There has been a stalling in that merger and the reason why I would love to see one organisation representing advisers is that I don’t want to see mixed messages going to government. And if you send mixed messages to government, there is going to be unintended consequences,” Pedersen said.
“I believe that the FPA board is just not interested in a merger, and if the FPA is not interested in a merger, I don’t believe it’s going to represent the broad church of advisers.
“I have no agenda. I have not talked to the AFA about this – this is just my own personal views.”
Commenting on Pedersen’s resignation, FPA chair Julie Berry said: “Certainly we believe he contributed greatly to many of our recent policy changes and recommendations. He was heavily involved in the life risk committee, his expertise was in the insurance, investments, super and retirement planning area and it did add a lot of value to the FPA.
“I would have to reject any negative comments he’s made around that. Our process and procedure and governance in relation to any staff selection or succession planning is very robust. We have a remuneration and succession planning committee that form part of the board that does the leg work and those recommendations come as a whole and every board member has an opportunity to put input and assist in those decisions.”
Planning Parnters founding partner Martin McIntosh will replace Pedersen on the board as a casual director.
