SOUTH AFRICAN INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISORS ASSOCIATION
MEMBERSHIP GUIDING PRINCIPLES & ELIGIBILITY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISORS ASSOCIATION
The South African Independent Financial Advisors Association (SAIFAA) is a “non-profit company” that will pursue the following two broad objectives on behalf of its members:-
- To promote the value of “independent financial advice” in a modern financial services market, and the critical role of independent advisors in delivering this advice, to the media/regulator/public at large.
- To be recognised as the “voice of the independent financial advisor community”, with a mandate to represent this community with the regulator and the media.
Membership Eligibility Requirements – Any individual financial advisor working for an “Independently Owned” Category One Financial Services Provider (FSP) firm that is “in charge of its own destiny, and who is free to structure its businesses and solutions for the benefit of clients” qualifies for membership of SAIFAA.
Some product provider conflict will be allowed, but the guiding principle should be that the Category One FSP must be the “dominant party in any conflicted relationship and must have full discretion to easily withdraw from a product supplier conflict”.
The following are representative of “examples” of FSP’s who “Will Qualify” for membership:-
1) Fully “Independently Owned” Category One FSP’s who own 100% of the equity in their business and who have no enforceable rights from a third party product provider on their Category One FSP.
2) The same Category One FSP in the previous bullet, even if the Category One FSP has a Category Two FSP in the same group. The Category Two FSP can operate model portfolios, own a manco or operate a range of white labelled CISCA unit trust funds.
3) A Category Two FSP who owns shares in a third party product provider.
For further clarity, the following represents FSP’s where representatives will “Not Qualify” for membership especially within the role-out of RDR:-
a) Representatives of product providers, likely to be defined as “Product Supplier Agent – PSA” post RDR. For sake of clarity this specifically includes any representatives of product providers who are insurance companies or banks.
b) FSPs who have sold any proportion of the equity in their business to a third party product provider.
Proposed funding – To fulfil its intended mandate SAIFAA has to be funded by its membership, and “not by product providers or other industry bodies”. SAIFAA will however invite Product Provider Presentations to contribute towards Conferences, Forums and Workshops at a reasonable fee!
Membership fees will be put towards achieving the objectives of the association, and the infrastructure/overhead costs of the association “will be kept” to a minimum. The intention of our Exco is to continually brainstorm how best to keep the overheads to a minimum whilst still having access to specialist skills to fulfil the association’s mandate (e.g. specialist legal skills to comment of proposed regulatory amendments affecting SAIFAA Members).
Independent Financial Advisors (IFA’s) are invited to join SAIFAA as Founder Members (FM’s) at a cost of R3 000 pa, or if an FPI Member at R2 000 pa and IRO Multiple Individual Corporate Members at R2 400 pa per person in accordance with SAIFAA Guiding Principle and Membership Rules up to 31st July 2018.
Boundaries to activities – SAIFAA will avoid activities that could result in commercial conflicts that negatively affect its ability to deliver on the stated objectives.
Specifically the following areas have been identified as “no-go” areas:-
- SAIFAA intends embracing the direction of regulatory change under FAIS and RDR, and will therefore not support viewpoints that intend “protecting questionable business models of the past”. The focus will be on ensuring high quality practical implementation of proposed regulatory objectives.
- SAIFAA will avoid positioning itself as a litigation vehicle through which disgruntled members can channel firm-specific disputes with the regulator or the FAIS Ombud. SAIFAA will however comment on controversial FAIS Ombud rulings or controversial regulatory proposals.
SAIFAA Founder Exco Members [John Kinsley (Chairman), Alex Babich (Deputy Chairman), Kagisho Mahura, Dries du Toit, Harry Kalligiannis, Johann Kruger, Bertie le Roux and Derek Smorenburg] have offered their valuable time to serve and with the guidance and help of a large number of Product Providers we are ready to welcome all IFA’s to their own “Unique” Association!
Memorandum of Incorporation [SAIFAA CIPC Registration NPC Number 2017/231092/08] – SAIFAA Website
CEO and Founder of SAIFAA – Derek Smorenburg +27 (0) 82 441 5000 –
The Voice of the Independent Financial Advisor with the Public, the Industry, the Regulators and the Media!