News Round Up

Two big events for advisers this week; Morningstar rates a Fisher Fund; Cosignia gets into third party admin.

Monday, July 19th 2010, 5:03AM

There are two big events for advisers this week with submissions on the updated draft Code of Professional Conduct for Authorised Financial Advisers (AFAs) closing and the IFA's annual conference.

This is the final opportunity for stakeholders to comment on the Code before it is recommended to the Commissioner for Financial Advisers.

The document is also relevant to QFEs as the amended Financial Advisers Act (FAA) specifically requires the conduct and competence requirements of their advisers offering personalised services to retail clients on category 1 products to be benchmarked against the Code.

Submissions, which can be made on an informal basis, are due before 5pm, Wednesday 21 July

The second big event is the IFA Conference in Rotorua. Good Returns' publisher Philip Macalister will run a session on social media and is encouraging advisers and interested parties to "tweet" about the conference on Twitter.

He is looking for delegates who use Twitter or are interested in using Twitter to help broadcast the event.

If you are not attending but want to keep up with what's happening you can do this by signing up to Twitter and following #ifa2010

(If you want help with Twitter then email Philip@goodreturns.co.nz)

Morningstar rates a Fisher Fund
Fisher Funds Australian Growth fund has been given a "recommended" rating by Morningstar.

It says the fund "benefits from a sensible, highly-transparent process marshalled by two experienced investors, but the concentrated nature may be too racy for the more risk-averse."

The manager take a bottom up approach and run a concentrated portfolio of 15 - 25 stocks.

Cosignia gets into third party admin
Financial services provider Cosignia is launching the provision of third party administration services to the financial services market, with administration support being provided to insurers, reinsurers, broking organisations, employers and groups.

The decision to move into third party administration services follows a review of Cosignia's strategic direction to take advantage of current market opportunities and this unique capability. A consequent decision is to move away from its provision of group risk insurance broking services, which Cosignia views as inconsistent with a true third party administration operation.

Cosignia chief executive Craig Furness says over the past three years the company has grown a strong service offer relating to employee benefit programmes incorporating health insurance, life insurance, disability insurances and trauma insurance. "Our ongoing provision of third party administration services will continue to focus on this employee benefit market."

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