How to become a first-class adviser

Stephen Rogers says he sought a DIMS licence as he didn’t want to be seen as a “second-class” adviser.

Thursday, June 25th 2015, 6:00AM

His planning firm Foundry Asset Management was recently granted a DIMS licence, bringing the total issued so far to six (full list below).

“I just didn’t want to be seen as a second class adviser,” he says.

He says he could have carried on without a licence, but thought it was necessary from a marketing perspective.

Only 8% of his clients by value will use the DIMS service, however it will be offered to all his clients.

He says the DIMS clients are typically people who travel a lot and are hard to get hold of.

His preference is to sit down with clients so he can understand how much risk they want to take on as well as their reasons and rationales for making investments.

Or as he puts it: “it’s like putting a thermometer in their mouth to see if they have a temperature or not.”

While the DIMS licence application was very much driven as a marketing exercise, Rogers says his investment committee have pointed out the licence will make Foundry more scalable and clients using the service are likely to get a more consistent return on their investments.

The service will be offered to all his clients but he expected the large majority (80%) will not use the service.

Rogers says he had many of the elements required for a DIMS service in place, which made the process easier. Foundry has an independent investment committee, a custodian and used regulated products.

Putting the application together was a big task. While he doesn’t know, (and doesn’t want to know) how much it cost it took a team of four people two months to put together and the application ran to 300 pages.

While he will use the service with his clients, other financial planners have expressed an interest in using it for their clients.

“I don’t think we are necessarily unique,” he says, however the firm has the investment committee, custodian and processes in place that others could use.

Roger says he was “quite impressed by the FMA’s process and level of questioning.”

Who has a DIMS licence?

The FMA has had 56 applications so far. Only six DIMS licences have been granted.
Licences have been issued to: AMP, Kiwibank-owned Gareth Morgan Investments Limited Partnership, SBS-subsidiary Funds Administration NZ, the Todd Family Office, Foundry Asset Management and Queenstown-based Strongbox Wealth Management.
No personal DIMS licences have yet been issued.

Tags: DIMS Foundry AM