President Bruce Cortesi wrote to members after the association could not reach the 15 members required for its annual general meeting last month.

Only 14 showed up.

Cortesi said, while Financial Advice NZ was being established, the roles of existing professional associations needed to be maintained - and members' obligations continued.

He said it was disheartening that the quorum could not be met. The association is trying again in Christchurch.

"I do note however that the PAA is not alone in what appears to be 'member apathy' in respect of SGMs and AGMs. It appears that today’s reality is that unless an adviser is directly affected at a personal business level, then they decide to leave it to the personal expense of others to sort out," he said.

"This attitude if left to continue could have serious consequences and undermine the success to create a successful, engaging and rewarding profession of the future."

The PAA is also planning a special general meeting to discuss its legacy trust, which holds the proceeds of the sale of its holiday homes.

Cortesi said it was imperative that the meeting went ahead. If it did not, it could delay that wind-up process of the PAA and the transition to complete the establishment of Financial Advice New Zealand.

It had been rumoured that the legacy trust money would be used to help kickstart Financial Advice NZ, but chief executive Rod Severn said that was not true.