22nd January 2007, 01:51 PM
The advert says 'membership of the IFA is essential' - as far as I understand it, that means any grade of corporate membership, not restricted to MIFA. If they wanted MIFA only, they should have used a capital M - and tried hard not to put it at the beginning of a sentence, to avoid ambiguity!
Although, as regular readers may have noticed, I am a strong supporter of the IFA, I also agree with Mr Hosty that adverts saying IFA membership is 'desirable' (or something similar) are preferable to those saying 'essential'. I am not sure about any legal issues, but what you want from the advert is to get the best candidates to apply, and you might exclude good applicants by excluding those that have not chosen to join IFA.
As far as Troll's point about suing the IFA is concerned, I don't think that would stand up, and I wouldn't see the point. If you want to sue someone for professional incompetence, you sue their employer (or the individual, if self-employed) and get paid out of their Professional Indemnity Insurance. You have much less chance of winning, and if you do win less chance of getting paid, if you sue someone not directly connected with the incompetent work - even if you can find an indirect link, such as IFA accreditation.
I would be very interested to know if there has ever been a case of a professional institution being sued by the client of one of their members, for accrediting an incompetent professional. Similarly, any case of a university being sued for granting a degree to an incompetent. Troll - have you got any such examples?
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
Although, as regular readers may have noticed, I am a strong supporter of the IFA, I also agree with Mr Hosty that adverts saying IFA membership is 'desirable' (or something similar) are preferable to those saying 'essential'. I am not sure about any legal issues, but what you want from the advert is to get the best candidates to apply, and you might exclude good applicants by excluding those that have not chosen to join IFA.
As far as Troll's point about suing the IFA is concerned, I don't think that would stand up, and I wouldn't see the point. If you want to sue someone for professional incompetence, you sue their employer (or the individual, if self-employed) and get paid out of their Professional Indemnity Insurance. You have much less chance of winning, and if you do win less chance of getting paid, if you sue someone not directly connected with the incompetent work - even if you can find an indirect link, such as IFA accreditation.
I would be very interested to know if there has ever been a case of a professional institution being sued by the client of one of their members, for accrediting an incompetent professional. Similarly, any case of a university being sued for granting a degree to an incompetent. Troll - have you got any such examples?
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished