Shanks: Use Money Week to have advice message heard

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Financial advisers should take the opportunity of Money Week to remind New Zealanders what they can do to help build their financial resilience, Financial Advice New Zealand says.

Tuesday, September 4th 2018, 6:00AM 5 Comments

The Commission for Financial Capability is running its annual week. This year’s focus is on helping New Zealanders prepare for and avoid financial disasters.

“To be really resilient as a population we need to know that we can weather the big financial hits of an unexpected event,” said the head of the CFFC, Retirement Commissioner Diane Maxwell.

CFFC’s research has shown that New Zealand has a low level of insurance compared to other OECD countries.

The country is 35th out of 45 countries on insurance spend at 2.5% of GDP, compared to the OECD average of 8.4%.

New Zealand sits well below the USA in 6th spot at 11.2%, the UK in 9th at 9.2%, and Australia in 21st at 4.9% -  similar to Argentina, Hungary and Iceland in its investment in house, vehicle, life, health and income insurance.

The CFFC’s Financial Capability Barometer quarterly survey of 2000 New Zealanders backed up the OECD figure, finding only half of those surveyed could count on insurance to cover property loss due to theft, serious damage to their home through disaster or weather, or car crash or major breakdown.

Financial Advice NZ chief executive Katrina Shanks said it was important for New Zealanders to have a conversation about financial resilient and advisers should be part of that conversation.

In past years, the IFA has manned a phone line for members of the public to call. Financial Advice NZ is not doing that this year but is running a social media campaign to reach consumers and help them to start thinking about the topic of resilience.

Shanks said it was right for the association to be part of a bigger education push. Members have been given tools to run their own social media campaigns and communicate with the wider public, she said.

“That’s enabled them to reach out and have the conversation. The more people are doing the work the more Ne Zealander swill notice the conversation around financial well being and that’s a good thing for all New Zealanders.”

Financial Advice NZ now has more than 1800 members.

Tags: Commission for Financial Capability Financial Advice New Zealand

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