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Thoughts from our CEO: the provenance of trust

ARTICLE BY

  • Lizelle van der Merwe
  • CEO
  • FIA

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Financial advice has something important in common with fine art: its value rests not only in the outcome, but also in its provenance.

For every financial decision, the intermediary provides that provenance – the human insight, traceable judgement and professional accountability behind a client’s insurance cover, risk management or financial plan. In an age of algorithms and increasingly commoditised information, this human provenance cannot simply be automated. It is why professional advice endures, and why the theme of this year’s FIA Advice Summit speaks so directly to the work our members do every day.

The FIA has a provenance of its own. For decades, we have stood alongside intermediaries across non-life insurance, financial planning, investments, healthcare and employee benefits. That multidisciplinary reach is both rare and deliberate. It enables us to understand the intermediary profession as a whole, rather than through the lens of a single line of business, and to advocate with a breadth few others can match.

With that breadth comes a particular responsibility. Much of the FIA’s most important work takes place out of public view. Regulatory engagement, sensitive negotiations and the considered advocacy that has delivered tangible outcomes for members – from levy relief to commission gains – often depend on discretion to succeed.

We cannot, and should not, publicise everything we do. This is the high-trust compact at the heart of our association: members place their confidence in the FIA, knowing that value is being created on their behalf even when the work itself is not visible. Trust, like provenance, is earned over time and demonstrated through results.

Gathering insight

That trust also places an obligation on us to listen more closely to our members. This year, we have fundamentally revised the way we gather member insight. Before committing to new strategic priorities, we are investing more deeply in the structures already available to us – our Regional Councils, Advisory Council and wider membership.

By using this architecture more deliberately, we are turning periodic engagement into a continuous conversation.

The principle is simple: the members who deliver value to clients every day are best placed to tell us where the FIA can deliver greater value to them. By strengthening the structures that connect us, we ensure that our direction is not assumed on behalf of members, but shaped by them.

That is how an association of our standing remains relevant: by making its own provenance a matter of continuous, member-informed proof.

A proven past is powerful only when it helps to shape what comes next. Our history gives us credibility; our members give us direction. Together, they are the source of the authenticity behind everything we do.

I invite you to be part of that conversation at the FIA Advice Summit on 13 October at the Sandton Convention Centre. Together, we will explore what provenance means for the future of advice – and for the profession we are proud to serve.

Register today and help us write the next chapter of a story worth trusting.

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