Associations hang back on Financial Advice NZ

Adviser associations are still not committing to joining forces with Financial Advice New Zealand.

Monday, April 1st 2019, 6:00AM

When the association was launched, it brought together members of IFA, PAA and NZFAA. But one of its longer-term goals was to expand to cover other advisers, including potentially other groups such as IBANZ and TripleA Advisers association.

IBANZ chief executive Gary Young said his organisation was still taking a “wait and see” approach to joining.

There would be strength in numbers on issues where the groups aligned, he said, but it was not clear how widespread those areas will be.

“We think there are some areas of common ground in some of the legislation but we do a lot of work with the Fire and Emergency New Zealand levy which is purely a general insurance thing so we are just waiting and seeing how it pans out.”

When issues such as churn in life insurance came up it had bee important to distanc general insurance brokers for that, he said.

He said associations already worked well together via the Stakeholders Engagement Group, which meets with regulators.

Wayne Smith, of TripleA, said it was not something that had come up again since Financial Advice NZ was first mentioned.

He said his association was “ticking along nicely” as it was. “Financial Advice NZ has only been up and running for a year, it’s still a little bit soon for us to be able to look at it.”

Murray Weatherston said there would be no benefit to SiFA in merging with Financial Advice NZ as long as it remained solvent.

“I don’t see what benefit there would be for us.”

Simon Manning chief executive of The Association, said he was already a member of Financial Advice NZ.

“It’s possible we would look to join as a group somehow but we won’t make a decision on that for a while yet”

Young said Financial Advice NZ needed to focus on communication. “I think the first year is always a learning curve but with a membership organisation like a professional association it’s crucial that you’re communicating with your members. That’s one of the biggest challenges, bringing everyone together.”

Tags: Financial Advice New Zealand SiFA