SIFA considers its future in new environment

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The Society of Independent Financial Advisers (SIFA) figures it will have to change its name soon and is pondering its place in the new, regulated world.

Thursday, February 25th 2010, 7:23AM 8 Comments

by Jenha White

What will the Society of independent Financial Advisers (SiFA) do with its name as regulation restricts the use of the words "independent adviser?"

SiFA chairman Murray Weatherston says the simplest thing to do is to change SiFA from an acronym to a word in its own right.

Weatherston believes fewer than 5% of advisers could class themselves as independent with the Code Committee ruling that an independent adviser has to be both independent and objective.

"Anyone who works off a preferred or approved list can never be objective because they're not considering other products. I doubt many advisers are independent and objective."

He thinks SiFA may well become an organisation suitable for authorised financial advisers (AFAs) who don't come under QFE's.

"If you work for a QFE you don't need to be authorised because under the QFE you're a tied agent.

"If you're individually authorised then you're not tied and we may become a very attractive organisation for those individual authorised advisers - we don't have the huge membership obligations of other big institutions, however we can still offer collegiality and conferences."

SIFA has fewer than 100 members and runs two conferences each year. It is a group primarily for sharing ideas and discussing investment and insurance issues. It doesn't have rules and codes dictating standards, ethics or processes and isn't involved in formal education and professional training.

Jenha is a TPL staff reporter. jenha@tarawera.co.nz

Tags: regulation

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