Current fee structures at Apfa are guaranteed and will not change until June 2018 when there will be a review of the situation, which raises the possibility of an overhaul of the way advisers will be billed for membership of the expanded body.
At the moment, fees for Apfa rely on the number of registered individuals at an adviser firm. For companies with 10 or fewer employees the company base fee is £245 a year plus £116.50 for each individual under a total of 10. More than ten incurs an addition £68 individual charge. This is in comparison to the WMA which bases its fees on company turnover.
Despite the usual round of cynicism from the adviser community, with one barbed intermediary comment describing the move as “about as useful” as a town merging with one of its suburbs, Ms Field pointed out that the addition of the Apfa and its staff and members will combine much needed skill sets.
She said: “For a start we haven’t got any financial advice and planning policy experience and Apfa have got it in absolute spades.
“As a bigger organisation, we’ll be able to do much more with our resources. We’ll be able to free up some time and be able to achieve more with that”, she added.
Reacting to a question referencing Apfa’s financial performance, Ms Field is quick to correct. “This is not just about finances, we have been investing in the WMA and yes we do well for ourselves and we have substantial reserves, but equally Apfa posted a profit last year. As a bigger organisation, we’ll be able to do much more with our resources. We’ll be able to free up some time and be able to achieve more with that.”
Garry Heath, director general of competitor intermediary trade body Libertatem, said that the merger between the two groups had been “coming down the road” for some time and that in his view it was “completely inevitable”.
He indicated that a loss in revenue and a contracting membership could have been the issue that had now led to this move and questioned whether merging the two groups was a viable proposition.
“My view is – and it’s happened so many other times – organisations cease to become viable they then merge with another organisation. Once merged you’re going to have half a voice of a bigger body, and I would suspect that for the size of this new body, for every pound that an Apfa member puts in – assuming they stay, the wealth managers are going to be putting in a lot more.
