Johnston, who stepped down from the role in February, had been acting in the job along with a number of other senior managers up until September when Davis was appointed.
"I stepped down as head of personal financial services in February to run my own AUFP advisory practice, but have retained a lesser role within the AUFP leadership team through my appointment as head of financial planning," Johnston said.
"In my role as head of financial planning, I will continue to support Steve and will also be responsible for running adviser forums and assisting our network in terms of mentoring and developing practices."
He said he had always owned a database of clients, but decided this year he wanted to make it more of a-full time job and in doing so opened his own offices under the AUFP brand.
"I have an office in Mulvane East and Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, and have created joint ventures with two accountancy businesses as well," he said.
"I thought it would be a slow year due to the global financial crisis, so had planned for a slow transition out of my role. However, my business has been booming, which required me to step down earlier than expected."
Johnston is the first member of the AUFP leadership team to operate his own practice, which he said would benefit the dealer group as he would be able to provide opinion from both a leadership and practice principal perspective.
No replacement for Davis, who joined AUFP from Perpetual in March, has been appointed yet.
