The purpose of your call is to help you make informed decisions. Our financial advisers practise the Gold Standard of Independence and are uniquely positioned to help you get clarity and direction with complete impartiality.

So your phone call will be directed to a dedicated and independent Financial Adviser, no strings attached. It’s a simple and easy way for you to quickly get trusted factual information, general advice, or a helpful point in the right direction by referral to a service provider who can help you.

By law we aren’t permitted to provide personal financial advice without doing so in writing and although we would be happy to do that for you, that is beyond the scope of the call.

Please ask the member you speak to if you’d like more help and they’ll be happy to tell you how to do that.

Although there’s no time limit to your call per se, we have allowed about 15 minutes per call so that we can help as many people as is realistically possible. If you do want more time or want to explore particular topics in more detail then talk to the adviser about how to continue the conversation later, and what might be involved.

Yes! All calls are recorded for compliance and training purposes, however all calls are confidential – you don’t even need to identify yourself if you’d prefer not to.

All feedback is welcome! If you have comments, testimonials, feedback, ideas and suggestions  … or if you’d simply like to give us a pat on the back! You can do that here: https://pifa.org.au/contact-us.

Established in 2009 and formerly known as the ‘IFAAA’, PIFA was formed following the ASIC’s submission to government that conflicts of interest “distort the quality of advice” and should be banned. Consumer groups endorsed the view but many industry associations representing financial planners vehemently opposed the idea of banning commissions, even though it was demonstrably in the interests of the public. The Association’s founders recognised that there was an urgent need for a professional Association whose members’ interests were aligned with those of the public.

The Profession of Independent Financial Advisers exists to provide leadership to the financial advisory community and to the public at large on the provision of genuinely independent financial advice in this country.

As a leader, PIFA’s role is to set a standard for the financial advisory community in the interests of the public. Its vision is for a new era in which high quality; genuinely independent financial advice is accessible to all who seek it.

Similar to the Heart Foundation’s “Tick” which guides Australians on healthier eating choices, the PIFA Gold Standard of Independence™ guides Australians on how to find financial advisers who practice without incentive and without conflicts.

For the public this symbol is a beacon for genuinely independent financial advice. For Practising Members this symbol is evidence they have satisfied the most stringent standard of independence in the profession.

This is a tricky one and we hate to bring out the ‘how long is a piece of string’ phrase, but it’s true! When you talk to a member on the phone, we recommend you ask about what they do for their usual type of client and what that costs. If what you need is specialised and the member recommends referring you to someone who is an expert in that particular area, then perhaps they can give you an idea of what to expect in terms of cost.

You can ask about any subject you like but the law limits what we can talk about. We are allowed to provide you factual information during the call … this means that if you are thinking about investing in BHP for example, we can tell you whether their historical share price has increased or decreased over specified periods of time, that it is considered a ‘blue chip’ share and what that means, but we can’t tell you whether it is the right thing for YOU to do, because we won’t have had an opportunity to consider your personal circumstances.

It’s never a bad idea to make a note of any questions you think of before you make a call to a professional; there’s nothing worse than finishing a phone call and realising you forgot to ask a question!

You can call the PIFA IFA Week hotline as many times as you like between 8am and 8pm AEDT during the event. If you’d like to start up a conversation with one of the members that you chat with, please feel free to get their contact details from the member themselves, or you can find their contact details after the fact on our PIFA website www.pifa.og.au via the ‘directory’ menu.