Closer PAA/NZMBA ties welcomed

Institute of Financial Advisers (IFA) director Tony Vidler has welcomed news the Professional Advisers Association (PAA) and NZ Mortgage Brokers Association (NZMBA) are to work together more closely.

Friday, August 5th 2011, 7:35AM 6 Comments

Vidler advocated the creation of a single professional adviser body at the recent IFA conference in Wellington, telling delegates at a Q&A, "We won't be taken seriously as a profession until we have one body setting standards."

He said the closer ties between the PAA and NZMBA was "a step in that direction."

"On that basis, we would give it the thumbs up," he said.

"Anything that moves us closer to having a single professional association and having common standards in the industry we endorse."

Vidler said the creation of one adviser body would create a more powerful lobbying group but that the real benefit would be in presenting a unified front to consumers and having consistent standards.

"There really doesn't seem to be any point in duplicating things like ethical standards or complaints processes or understanding or interpretation of best advice," he said.

"They're not areas where you think there should be any competition."

For PAA chief executive Edward Richards, the tie-up is also part of the wider changes to the adviser market.

"I think it signals that the professional bodies are recognising the changing environment," he said.

"Advisers have had to change, with the regulatory and educational workload, so professional associations, the PAA and NZMBA included, have recognised that we need to change too."

Edwards said it was too early to speculate about closer ties with the IFA, as there was still work to be done on the detail of the PAA's closer ties with the NZMBA, and the wishes of individual bodies members would need to be taken into account.

However, he did recognise the benefits one professional body could have for the adviser industry.

"In the end it's all about promoting the role of the adviser, if we can do that better with one larger and more efficient organisation, then so much the better."

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Comments from our readers

On 5 August 2011 at 9:19 am Mac said:

The legal profession has the Law Society, and the accounting profession the Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA). We seem to be an immature profession with multiple professional bodies for AFAs, RFAs et al. We need to think about a unified voice as a single lobbying force, and a self regulatory body e.g. industry standard auditing role for it's members. Tony, you should be talking to the NZICA to get a blue print for your future strategy for the IFA to become the only professional body for our advisory profession.

On 5 August 2011 at 1:40 pm Paranormal said:

Thats not really true about the other professions. The legal fraternity is split between the Auckand District Law Society and the NZ Law Society (just have a look at their respective websites to see how strained the relationship between them is). Accountants are split between NZICA, CPA and ICA.

It really comes down to what the Association really stands for and what best suits the individual member best.

On 8 August 2011 at 3:21 pm Mac's Nemesis said:

Wow Mac,

Pretty transparent plug for the IFA - you salaried?

On 8 August 2011 at 9:38 pm Independent Observer said:

Frankly I don’t care what the entity is called – although there is only room for one is this country.

Perhaps the future could see collaboration between all of the existing groups, sitting under a single industry body, with separate “divisions” to represent unique interests? This would give the proposed body a single voice and greater fire-power to provide meaningful guidance & insights to a bumbling Regulator.

On 10 August 2011 at 12:33 am Forthright said:

The mysterious FAANZ was supposed to be the collaboration glue between all of the existing industry groups. However, if you look at their website, they are still confused, with “who we are” promoting McMorran & Vidler and “contact us” promoting Flood & Pratley. What is it they say about getting the small things right? The Regulator is positively professional compared to the image some of the bumbling industry groups project.

On 12 August 2011 at 12:22 pm Tony Vidler said:

There have been several requests to FAANZ to correct the website, and update the contact details as neither Lyn McMorran or myself have been on the FAANZ board for over a year.