[Weekly Wrap] KiwiSaver to replace APBs

These could be famous last words, but it seems like the debate which has been raging over APBs and what role each association is playing is going to die down for a while.

Friday, May 25th 2007, 2:30PM

SiFA's newly elected president Murray Weatherston (who once many years ago chaired a predecessor body to the IFA) says in this story his group will wait until the government provides more clarity over the role of an APB before commenting further.

What will fill the news space for the next few months is undoubtedly KiwiSaver. Last week's Budget has really made everyone sit up and think about the issue. Here at Good Returns we want to continue our mission of providing advisers with the best, most incisive and freshest news.

To help us achieve this goal I would like to invite you to complete this little online survey about KiwiSaver. To complete the survey click here.

Sticking with KiwiSaver I am sure many readers will have been surprised to learn that the Government Actuary is taking a tough line on the adviser fees that can be built into KiwiSaver. In our story you will see he has essentially banned trail fees.

I have always argued that for KiwiSaver to serve the employee well, then there must be some form of advice in the fund selection process. How this is achieved is possibly one of the biggest challenges we in the savings industry face.

The political future of KiwiSaver is curious at the moment, as it seems the National Party are taking the old fashioned, let's-oppose-everything-the-government does approach and has voted against the KiwiSaver changes in Parliament. What it plans to do heaven knows.

It seems quite a high risk strategy as the public mood appears to be supportive of the changes.

While Michael Cullen has been making a lot of people in the industry extremely busy with tax changes and KiwiSaver, MFS's ceo Jason Maywald continues to be a little dynamo himself knocking off more and more deals and initiatives. Last week it was the launch of miCentre - its mid and back office service offering for advisory firms - this week it is the listing of MFS. When does this man ever go fishing?

Other news that Good Returns has been first to report this week includes Plan B, the Australian crowd that has recently bought a number of New Zealand advisory firms has launched an IPO, and the Cushing family chase more of REL.

Earlier in the week we ran an insurance news story about a firm which offers the public online underwriting so policies can be written on the cyberspot. This is something we plan to explore some more. The thought this leaves with me is that there are quite a few new challenges emerging for the traditional life adviser. We plan more in this in an upcoming issue of ASSET.

During the week AMP Capital got a new managing director to replace Catherine Savage and Fund Distributors has made two new appointments. Details in the People section of the site.

In the home loan space we have our regular look at what's happening in the market and also confirmation that two other banks are looking at addressing the level of commission they pay brokers.

Have a great weekend.

PS: Please complete our KiwiSaver survey here.