The Personal Finance Society board will meet early in the New Year to discuss a formal response to intervention in its running by parent body the Chartered Insurance Institute.
The CII board announced in December it would step in at the PFS over governance concerns.
The CII appointed three new CII board members to the PFS board to ‘equalise the board.’ Later the CII plans to add a fourth director to give it a majority on the PFS board.
The intervention by the CII has been met with a chorus of condemnation from many PFS members and past Presidents.
On the 22 December the PFS board tried to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the issue but this had to be abandoned as it was not quorate.
The PFS and CII have been at loggerheads in recent weeks about the future direction of the PFS after mediation efforts failed. The PFS is the UK’s professional body for Chartered Financial Planners.
In a statement issued today, PFS interim CEO Don MacIntyre said the PFS board will meet soon to discuss the implications of the CII intervention and next steps.
Mr Macintyre said in the statement: “The PFS board will be meeting early in the new year to consider its response to action taken by the CII on 21 December, namely the appointment by the CII of additional institute directors to the PFS board so that it is now made up of equal numbers of member directors and CII appointed Institute Directors and a notice that it intends to increase the number of CII Institute Directors.
“Under the PFS’ articles of association, the PFS has 30 days from the date of the notice (ie, until 19 January 2023) to consult PFS members on this change of control and consulting PFS members will be the urgent priority of the newly constituted PFS board. Members wishing to express their views about the actions taken by the CII in advance of the board consultation can write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..”
Separately a group of PFS members has set up an organisation called OurPFS.co.uk to fight the CII’s intervention. The website is here: https://ourpfs.co.uk/
Alasdair Walker, Chartered Financial Planner at Handford Aitkenhead & Walker and founder of the new ‘Our PFS’ campaign, suggested that the CII’s attempted takeover of the PFS was “all about money.”
He said the board takeover was an attempt by the CII to grab the PFS’s, “£19 million of surplus revenue, which was paid by, and belongs to, the PFS membership.”
The CII has denied its PFS takeover plans are related to money and says the governance of the PFS and the future direction of the PFS was its main concern.
Among the governance concerns raised by the CII are a failure of the PFS to act in line with the Articles of Association approved by PFS members, a lack of collective decision making by the PFS board and the exclusion of Institute-appointed directors from PFS board meetings and decision-making processes.
