Summary

 

Wes McMaster was Chairman of the Board of the Financial Planning Association of Australia Limited (FPA) for the two years ending in November 1999.  In this role plus his prior period as a director, he was instrumental in influencing change in regulation and industry structure.  He also introduced substantial change in the policy making, organisational and governance structures of the FPA. 

 

This is an overview of his involvement with the FPA.  It does not attempt to record the numerous days and hours spent contributing to chapters, curriculum, strategy and many other elements of their activity.

 

1984                                  Founding member of the International Association of Financial Planners (IAFP) and the Tasmanian State Council

                        Founding member of the Australian Society of Investment & Financial Advisers (ASIFA) and the Tasmanian State Council

                        (These two bodies later merged to form the FPA)

1990-91                         Secretary and Treasurer of the organising committee that presented the first FPA Annual Convention.

1991-93                         Member of the first FPA State Council in Tasmania

1994-96                         Chairman of the FPA State Council in Tasmania and Director of the FPA.

1996                                  Elected Vice President of the Board of the FPA.  Became Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Board.  Member of the Executive Committee of the Board.

1997                                  Chairman of the working party that prepared the FPA submission to the Wallis inquiry.  Represented FPA in the International CFP Council (ICFPC).

1997-99                         Chairman of the Board

2000                                  Retired from ICFPC.  Appointed a Director of the Financial Industry Complaints Service Ltd.

2002-4                             Prepared detailed industry analysis for the FPA

Present             Advocates principles for financial advice and investment advice

 

 

 

1984

 

Wes became a founding member of the International Association of Financial Planners (IAFP) and also became a founding member of the State Council in Hobart.

 

Not long after this he became a founding member of the Australian Society of Investment & Financial Advisers (ASIFA) and a founding member of their State Council in Hobart.

 

For a period he served on both state councils until it became clear that ASIFA was more aligned with Dealers and IAFP was more aligned with planners.  He had his own dealership and resigned from the IAFP State Council to focus on the work of ASIFA.

 

Arthur Orchard was Chairman of the State Council and Wes was Secretary.  They organised meetings, discussion groups, professional development sessions and generated a presence and following within the financial planning community in Tasmania.

 

1990 - 1994

 

Following the merger of ASIFA and IAFP to form the FPA, Wes worked as Secretary and Treasurer on the organising committee that presented the first FPA Annual Convention in Hobart.  This was a turning point for the financial planning movement in Australia as the convention showed the strong support of financial planners and the industry for the FPA.  They had 1,200 delegates to the 1991 Convention.

 

He also sat on the State Council of the FPA from inception until he became Vice President in November 1996. 

 

In 1994 he became Chairman of the State Council and during this period they increased membership, developed sponsorship agreements, held professional development sessions, conducted public forums on financial planning topics, created public awareness of financial planning and contributed to FPA thinking at a national level.

 

1994 - 1996

 

When Wes became Chairman of the Tasmanian State Council of the FPA, he also became a Director of the FPA. 

 

During 1995 and 1996 he was a member of the Legislative & Regulatory Affairs Committee of the FPA.  During those two years, they formulated a great deal of policy and advice that they delivered to the Australian Securities Commission (ASC) as the FPA contribution to their “Good Advice” project.  Many of their recommendations to the ASC became the basis for subsequent regulation of financial advice.

 

1997

 

In November 1996 Wes was appointed by the Board as Vice-President as well as Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Board.

 

During this period he was on the Executive Committee of the Board and chaired the working party that prepared the FPA submission to the Wallis Inquiry into regulation and the Australian financial system.  All of their recommendations to the Wallis Inquiry have been adopted and are now reflected in the Corporations Act 2001 that regulates financial advice.  

 

As Chairman of the Finance Committee he was responsible for the formulation of the budget, audit, supervision of financial controls and the financial behaviour of the FPA.

 

During this year he also attended and took a close interest in the activity of the International CFP Council.  It quickly became clear to Wes that this was a body with no authority or legal standing and was controlled by the US.  He began to question why this is so.

 

1998 - 1999

 

In November 1997 the Board elected Wes as their Chairman. 

 

At this time, the FPA was under threat of splitting as a result of strong and public faction fighting between practitioners and dealers.  Wes resolved their differences by pointing out that they are interdependent and they both need to find solutions to what are essentially the same problems. 

 

As a result, he proposed changes to the governance structure of the organisation.  They abolished State Councils and consequent automatic directorships.  They also abolished the National Practitioners Advisory Committee and the National Dealers Advisory Committee as the existence of these committees caused a polarisation of two views about the one issue.  They replaced them with four policy making committees each including two dealers and two practitioners.  This put practitioners and dealers in a position where they worked together to resolve the same issues.  They then restructured the Board to include two directors elected by dealers, two directors elected by practitioners and four directors elected by popular vote from the general population.  They also gave the Board the ability to invite two independent directors and made the Chief Executive Officer a Director.

 

Through these measures, the FPA and the financial planning industry remained as a cohesive, single interdependent group with one voice.

 

The influence of Wes in the International CFP Council (ICFPC) grew and he became Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Council.  This was significant because it was the most influential group within the council.  This placed him in a position where he was able to question the CFP licence revenues and their application and draw out inconsistencies in the way different countries were treated, highlight the US position of dominance and change thinking about he direction of the Council and its purpose.

 

2000 -2002

 

Wes retired as Chairman in November 1999 and remained as Chairman of the Finance Committee of the ICFPC for the following year.  He was instrumental in positioning the ICFPC to take ownership of the CFP and Certified Financial Planner trade marks from the US CFP Board of Standards.  This would make the council independent of US interests and the only global body representing the financial planning profession. He then retired from the council.  His successor, Ray Griffin, has taken the council to the next level as an independent body that will own the marks.

 

In this year Wes was appointed as a Director of the Financial Industry Complaints Service Ltd to represent the interests of the financial planning and stockbroking industries

 

2002 - 2004

 

In 2000 Wes was appointed as Adjunct Professor (Financial Planning) at RMIT University.  In this capacity he suggested to the FPA that RMIT could conduct a series of studies of the financial planning industry.  Considering that the FPA covers 80% of the industry, this would give coverage of a complete financial planning community and the FPA would become the source of definitive information about the structure and behaviour of the financial planning industry. 

 

In 2002, 2003 and 2004 he conducted the following surveys for the FPA. 

 

·                Stakeholder Survey – Media

·                Stakeholder Survey – Government & Industry Associations

·                Consumer Sentiment Survey

·                Principal Member Survey – Industry Structure

·                Principal Member Survey – Professional Practice

 

Wes largely designed as well as managed these surveys.  He did all of the analysis and wrote the survey reports.  In doing this he provided industry with information to allow analysis of financial advice activity.

 

2004 to present

 

At present Adj Prof McMaster is engaged by many of the major law firms in Australia to provide expert opinions on the principles of financial advice in matters of litigation.  Some of this work has been accepted by the courts as standards for financial advice. Adj Prof McMaster has also advised ASIC on regulatory matters. He was recently invited by the Chairman of the Panel of the Financial Ombudsman Service to write a paper, “Relevant Standards for Financial Advice” and that is now widely quoted in legal circles.

 

Adj. Prof. McMaster’s advocacy over many years for the principles of financial advice particularly through the practice of financial planning has helped establish standards that are applied in practice and used as benchmarks.  He has also developed benchmarks for the application of modern finance theory as taught in our universities to the practice of investment advice.  He freely shares these insights through lecturing, tutoring, mentoring and engaging with people who approach him.