[Weekly Wrap] Code Committee shows its hand

The Code Committee for Financial Advisers has released a consultation paper on changes it is considering.

Friday, August 9th 2013, 11:24AM

by Susan Edmunds

The committee is mulling over a range of aspects of the industry, from soft commissions and conflicts of interest to qualifications.

Its chairman, David Ireland, said it was not satisfactory to many that they had to send away clients who wanted advice on the scheme.

He said one of the key things the committee wanted to look at was how code standard one - the requirement that advisers put clients first - is applied. The committee wants to make it clear, that even if all other standards are met, the first must always be at the forefront.

It is also looking at how to provide a "pathway" for insurance and mortgage advisers to provide advice to their clients on KiwiSaver. The upside is that they would be able to do so without having to pass all the qualifications to be an investment adviser. The downside is that they would have all the compliance requirements of an AFA.

With reports that more registered financial advisers are moving towards becoming AFAs, that might seem to be a welcome thing. But I was told this week that a lot of advisers are purposefully not going all the way to being an AFA not because they aren't able, but because they don't want the extra regulation.So it will be interesting to see the response.

Also this week, the Financial Advisers Disciplinary Committee, set up to deal with complaints from the Financial Markets Authority about authorised financial advisers, held its first hearings... sort of.

The first two advisers to appear before it were David Ross and Stephen Musaphia. Philip Macalister went to the hearings and reported that they were over in about seven minutes. Both cases were adjourned until next Friday. As Nigel Tate, of the IFA, said to me, it did seem a little odd that Ross was there at all - it was clear that he is already being dealt with in the courts.

Read Philip's account of what happened here.

In other news, Claire Matthews said she thought regulation had not been as successful as it could have been, because consumers weren't any more confident in the sector. Debate continues on that one.

Today, Barry Read told me that he thought it would be helpful if regulation were able to go some way towards pointing out the "good" advisers. How the FMA might approach that is up for discussion, tough. The PAA thinks it's a matter of reputation.

On the investment side of the equation, NZ Funds' chief executive told me that there is a big market opportunity looming for investment advisers. He says in every country that has implemented some sort of across-the-board superannuation scheme, such as KiwiSaver, investment advice has taken off. He expects firms like the big organisations that were around 10 or 15 years ago might spring up to take advantage of it.

In mortgages, Loan Market chief executive David Hart is standing down. On the insurance front, Warren Buffett has backed Partners Life.

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