[Weekly Wrap] Bill for adviser regulation presented

Yesterday's Budget didn't deliver a lot for the financial services sector - except a bill for $4 million.

Friday, May 23rd 2008, 4:34PM

As we report today in Good Returns the government has for the first time put some numbers around regulation of the advice space. It says it will stump up some money, but the other 40% of costs will come from the industry itself. I would be fascinated to hear your views on this and whether it seems fair or not.

Some of the other news this week revolved, once again, around finance companies. The most significant of these is that Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel is allowing the Securities Commission to use funds in its litigation fund to chase criminal prosecutions against people involved in finance company collapses. While neither the commission nor the minister were naming names, Chris Lee has written that it is Bridgecorp people who will be in the gun.

Added to this news is the item late last Friday, that the Serious Fraud Office, is looking into both the Bridgecorp and Bluechip failures.

All this news is positive for investors and arguably, shows that officials are dealing with the situation.

The other investment news this week was a report from Morningstar about the dangers of New Zealand share funds holding too much of their portfolios in cash. The argument is that these managers will miss out on some the early returns when markets start rising. Also it is critical of managers using cash as their performance benchmark.

Insurance News
This week's life insurance news includes a report on how Tower Health and Life has gone in the past six months, a new needs analysis tool from AIG Life and Russell Hutchinson's latest column.

Amongst the appointments (and I guess unappointments) we have a sudden and unexpected departure from Mint Asset Management and Mercer adding to its investment team.

This month's Special Report looks at Liontamer's two new funds: Fallen Angels and Food and Fuel.