Patch protection blamed
A decision not to make it easier for non-AFAs to offer advice on KiwiSaver could be “patch protection”, a commentator says.
Friday, October 11th 2013, 7:41AM 
1 Comment
by Susan Edmunds
The Code Committee had toyed with allowing non-AFAs to offer investment advice on KiwiSaver via a pathway that was dubbed “KiwiSaver lite” by some.
But in its revised version of the new code, it had dropped the recommendation. Instead, AFAs who have not done the investment qualification will be able to offer advice only on the first-home withdrawal aspect of the scheme.
Chairman David Ireland said there had been significant negative feedback about the idea.
Massey University lecturer Claire Matthews said she was worried the change was driven mostly by AFAs wanting to protect their patch. “[The suggestion] was one of the things I thought was quite progressive in the original draft, although it did go a bit far.”
She said AFAs who had a KiwiSaver investment qualification, not the full investment training, should be able to advise on the scheme. “KiwiSaver access to advice is a major issue. We do need to do something. There needs to be more work done on that.”
Some advisers had been concerned that banks and other KiwiSaver providers were circumventing the advice rules.
AMP offers a phone questionnaire when a member signs up to help choose a fund. One new member said that changed his investment from a minimum risk, default conservative fund to a high-risk, high-return fund.
Matthews said AMP would be able to do that because its advisers were part of the QFE and they were only dealing with AMP products. “If they’re doing it over the phone, I’d be concerned at the extent that they’re getting the full picture.”
But she said overall it was a positive move because they were being proactive.
An AMP spokeswoman said what sort of profiling was done would depend on the channel through which a member approached it. She said there were a number of initiatives happening helping AMP to stay in contact with its KiwiSaver members.
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For many KiwiSaver is their only way to build wealth outside of the family home. Surely this commands more attention not less. KiwiSaver may be a relatively simple product structure but investors are exposed to the same financial markets and have the same advice needs as any long term saver. Why sell 2m KiwiSavers short?