[Weekly Wrap] A week of submissions, discussions and disclosures

If you had nothing else to do with your time at the moment, I am sure it would be quite easy to stay fully occupied reading and responding to discussion documents on adviser regulation.

Friday, July 3rd 2009, 4:30PM

The latest is one this week from the Ministry of Economic Development on disclosure. Disclosure is one of those prickly issues which stirs up a good amount of debate, and no doubt this document will achieve that.

However, as IFA president Lyn McMorran says here, the department hasn't given the industry a whole lot of time to make their submissions.

Disclosure is, as we know, tied in with the reputation of the industry. At the start of the week we ran a story where Finance Minister Bill English suggested the industry needed to lift its game. Since we ran the story there have been a number of comments and we have updated it. You can re-read it here and comment on it too.

Russell Investment has put out its latest survey of fund managers and they seem pretty keen on equities at the moment - far preferring them over bonds, especially government bonds.

As mentioned last week you can now comment on articles. It would be great to hear from other advisers and managers what they are doing in terms of asset allocation at the moment.

Sticking with investments we have an update on St Laurence and Geneva in depositrates.co.nz and also some news about South Canterbury Finance.

Did you know there was a big birthday this week? Yes, KiwiSaver has turned two. ASFONZ, in this story, says KiwiSaver is a cross roads. A big challenge for industry and policy makers is how best to encourage employers to remain engaged in assisting their employees with their savings. Read more here.

Insurance news
This week we have another new feature in Insurance News. Dr Dave McMillan, who was formerly the CEO at the PAA and is now development director at The National Partnership, is answering advisers' questions on business issues. You can find out more about it and ask your questions here.

Amongst the news we have an update on Suncorp's activities and the Privacy Commission warning life companies. Asteron, one of Suncorp's New Zealand subsidiaries has been active in the market with product enhancements and we will have more on that today or Monday.

Mortgage Rates
The past week has been relatively quiet with only a handful of smaller lenders making changes to their home loan rates. However the changes reinforce the market trend to drop six-month rates and increase longer-term ones. Full details of recent rates moves are here.

We are often asked, what is the best deal? This excellent graph shows you how rates compare to historical averages at the moment. When you see it you will quickly recognise one set of terms is much better than the other.

To get an idea of where rates are heading then you should read our wrap of what various economists are thinking. In this story we have one suggesting further cuts and others less optimistic that rates will stay down.

Members of Parliament have been muttering about enquiring into how banks set their rates and whether us Kiwis are getting ripped off. Well yesterday they decided not to look at what is going on with how much interest you have to pay. In this Blog mortgagerates.co.nz publisher gives his take on what is going on.

Check and compare Home Loan rates here.

Have a great weekend.
Philip