Posts

Hi I started writing this email this morning, and was going to highlight that PFS Member Directors have joined our calls for an EGM. However, circumstances have got ahead of us.

Caroline Stuart has resigned as President of the PFS

In a scathing resignation letter, she stated that the pressure the PFS board directors are under was damaging to her health, and concluded: “Furthermore, I am disgusted with the way the CII has behaved towards the PFS, the PFS members, and the PFS board. I believe they have attempted to gain access to the PFS reserves through bullying and intimidation of the PFS board, and when the member directors stood firm and these tactics failed, through the only option remaining to them – in my opinion, a cynical, disingenuous and autocratic takeover of the PFS board using unfounded and spurious allegations as the reason.”

CII Chair, Helen Phillips, released a wholly unsatisfactory statement this evening You can read it in full here It has hardly put my mind at rest. However, she does state: “The CII Group Board recognises that PFS members have important questions about the appointment of further Institute Directors, and we will ensure further opportunities are provided for them to be asked and answered over the consultation period. It is essential that PFS members are now consulted” Let’s ask her to put this into practice. Her email address is helen.phillips@cii.co.uk. I have sent her a brief email this evening. You may wish to do the same.

So, what now? This campaign is gathering momentum, but we still need more people making more noise. There are £19m of member funds in the balance, as Caroline points out in her resignation letter. Please do whatever you can to get the message out. Are you a member of a network that is aligned to PFS/CII? Have you asked them for their official position on this? Keep the emails asking for an urgent EGM to don.macintyre@thepfs.org rolling in. I have a feeling that we are getting close to the 2,000 we need for action. Thanks Alasdair

Keith Richards joins our call for an EGM It was a busy news day today. Thanks for everybody’s continued efforts in trying to keep this issue alive. I contacted the CII Local Institutes and PFS Regional Chairs today. If you know your local council-members of PFS Regional committee, please engage with them and let them know how upset the membership is by this. I understand that EGM emails were being sent at quite a rate yesterday – thanks to all that have! If you haven’t sent yours yet, or asked colleagues to do the same, find out how to here. If you have any other thoughts about actions we can take, whether regulatory, or legal challenge based, to try and delay or stop this hostile takeover, please contact me by replying to this email, or directly at alasdair@ha-w.co.uk Please continue to share these emails, and directing colleagues and friends to https://ourpfs.co.uk. With your help, we can drive real change. -Alasdair

Writing in Money Marketing today, Keith concludes… It is disappointing to most personal finance professionals that the CII continues to tread a very divisive and destructive path since mid 2021. The CII seems to ignore or misunderstand its core purpose as a qualification body and abide by the Code of Ethics it expects members to abide by. For the longer term benefit of both professional bodies and their respective memberships, I hope the CII reconsiders its actions, takes stock of the negative market reaction and re-engages with the elected PFS board, its membership and supports the calls for an EGM to allow the professions voices to be fairly and respectfully heard. Read the full article