Probably the most undervalued aspect of AIFA is its technical capability headed up by Andrew Strange. Backroom boys are always under-appreciated by those who unknowingly benefit from the fruits of their labours. Ironically it’s the technical team that AIFA’s seemingly ever-growing army of detractors and would-be competitors would most struggle to emulate.

 

Anyone can knock out press releases, blog and run petitions, I know because I’ve done it. However in-depth research and the subsequent formulation of coherent policy positions is the most painstaking and valuable - albeit unglamorous – part of what any serious ‘influence’ organisation does.

 

A couple of years back I launched IFAPAC – the IFA Political Action Committee. I aimed to get more IFAs to talk direct to MPs. We were surprisingly successful but I never kidded myself – and I never kidded anyone else – that IFAPAC could compete with AIFA. It was always designed to be complementary to AIFA and I said so at the time, though at the time I didn’t have a great deal of faith in the then-leadership of AIFA. I along with many more felt it had soft-pedalled on the RDR.

 

Subsequently AIFA’s position visibly hardened - in response, I believe, to the views I and others articulated - and I felt comfortable standing for its Board to which I was elected last November. Having seen AIFA from the inside I am completely comfortable now with the decision I made then, and I am more than ever convinced that anyone trying to divide our forces is doing the adviser community no favours.

 

That’s why I think Garry Heath and anyone else looking at launching yet another IFA lobby group should first take the trouble to find out what AIFA actually does and appreciate just how much effort and work is put in by the paid people and the volunteer unpaid Council members. IFAs need to get their heads around the fact that they either get behind the organisation that’s doing it right or they chuck their money – and sooner or later their livelihoods – down the drain with wannabes who have no realistic chance of delivering in the long run.

 

Garry, stop kidding yourself, but more importantly stop kidding the IFA community. Now’s the time to consolidate, not divide.