[Weekly Wrap] More movers and shakers

This week can be characterised as one peppered with news about changes in the financial advice world.

Friday, February 12th 2010, 2:16PM

We talk to the new number one mover and shaker, David Mayhew. Mayhew has been the Commissioner of Financial Advisers for a couple of weeks now and is getting to grips with the local market. His comments are worth reading and I thought put the regulatory changes into a different perspective to what we have heard before.

In the shaking department we have former shareholder champion, Simon Botherway, stepping down from the board of DNZ just months after being appointed. His resignation comes after unitholders revolted against planned changes at the company.

Also a story which surprised many this week was speculation that Deutsche Bank is looking to buy a stake in Craigs Investment Partners.

Meanwhile AXA, boss Ralph Stewart says there is no reason for the new owners of the business, whether it be NAB or AMP, to shake up the company. He expects that any deal will be done and dusted by June at the latest.

The message was arguably one tailored for advisers as it was delivered at its nationwide roadshow announcing changes to its insurance products. We have a report on those changes in Insurance News here.

Part of that story is around encouraging advisers to sell more cover before tax changes push prices up. Asteron too has a promotion telling advisers how to "future proof your client base". This is all about its proven Level Premium campaign. To find out more click here.

Insurance advisers may also be interested to see what the NZ Mortgage Brokers Association is up to at the moment. As part of its recent strategic planning exercise it has developed some tools to help members. Part of this is helping brokers who sell insurance products.

On the home loan front Kiwibank took to its floating rate this week, knocking quite a few basis points off the rate. TSB followed suit today.

Two of the bigger finance companies hit the news this week. We report in www.depositrates.co.nz today about plans for Strategic Finance which include a possible debt for equity swap. Plus South Canterbury Finance has a new investment statement out.

The new document outlines the state of the company and the various risks it faces. Read the story here and you can download the documents at the end of the story.

Finance company collapses are bad news for most people involved, but not the receivers it seems. We reveal today how many millions of dollars PricewaterhouseCoopers has made so far.

New appointments started with a flurry this year but have quietened down recently. The most recent one is a new adviser at Macquarie. If you have a new appointment for this page please email details to info@goodreturns.co.nz

« Botherway quits DNZ board

Sovereign takes regulation bull by the horns »

Special Offers