ISI looks at setting up an APB
Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel has delivered a broadside at the infighting between adviser industry groups.
Tuesday, September 4th 2007, 5:49AM
by Rob Hosking
However, there are claims of some politics going on, including allegations that the Institute of Financial Advisers undermined a proposed merger between the Life Brokers Association and the Professional Advisers Association.
Dalziel says "there has been a bit of nonsense" between some of the organisations.
"Seeking to undermine the credibility of other bodies who are seeking to set themselves up for the new regime is not a good look. It's just not professional."
Dalziel pointedly referred to the legislation passed last year which will cover this area. She says that just because a body presents itself as a professional body does not mean it will be automatically accepted as one.
Such a body still has to be approved by the government – on the advice of the Securities Commission.
In this context, Dalziel's condemnation of activities aimed at undermining other professional bodies as "not professional" has a particularly pertinent ring.
Dalziel has also suggested the regulations which would cover APBs might be brought forward: the original plan was to have them released in the first quarter of the year but a high turnover of staff at the Ministry of Economic Development has delayed the work – which has now been farmed out to a private law firm.
Meanwhile the Investment Savings and Insurance Association is also investigating setting up an APB. Chairman Sean Carroll confirmed to Good Returns the ISI is conducting a feasibility study into an APB but says no decision have been made about whether it will do so, or who it might do it with.
Good Returns understands the APB may have appeal to salaried advisers, such as those who work for banks.
"We've just set up a working party to look at the options," Carroll says. "At this stage it's not so much as keeping our powder dry as taking a look to see whether we've actually got some powder."
"We could glibly say we are going to be an APB but we don't' know yet the detail of what that might look like."
Rob Hosking is a Wellington-based freelance writer specialising in political, economic and IT related issues.
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