Oh! What a year

Tuesday, December 24th 2002, 6:38AM

Boy am I glad Christmas is here. Christmas marks the end of an extraordinary year that has seen many changes in the financial services industry.

Nearly every major provider has gone through some change - many of them unexpected. ING and ANZ formed their joint venture, Westpac has bought BT Funds Management and Rothschild, Royal & SunAlliance is in the process of being sold to the public, and AMP and Tower have had their problems.

Financial planners have seen it tough. Judging from funds flow figures not a lot of business has been written and a number of planners have admitted they have written few new plans (others say they have been really busy - go figure).

As one industry luminary noted the other day planners have had to take a good hard look at their businesses and develop revised business plans.

Overarching the difficulties markets have presented there is the threat that some form of regulation will be cast upon the financial planning industry next year.

What shape or form it takes is unknown at this stage. Whether it adds anything to the process or just becomes more red tape we will have to wait and see.

From the investors' perspective the markets have proved extremely tough and challenged their thinking about investment strategy. It's tested their patience and (hopefully) those that have sat tight will prosper in the long run.

Perhaps the best thing we can say about the year is that it is over. Let's hope that 2003 is a much better and more prosperous year all around.

All the staff at Tarawera Publishing would like to extend their Christmas wishes to readers of all our publications. May you have a wonderful, restful and safe holiday.

Good Returns will continue to deliver news and information to you over the break to keep you up to date with happenings.

Merry Christmas and good returns for 2003