CFP numbers predicted to lift

Financial Advice NZ is launching a marketing fund to promote the CFP mark in New Zealand.

Monday, July 15th 2019, 6:00AM

The issue of how the association will balance promoting the merits of CFP when not all its members hold the standard has been a topic of discussion in the industry.

Financial Advice NZ administer the CFP mark in New Zealand.

There are now about 285 people in New Zealand with the CFP designation, up from 279 at the end of 2017.

Financial Advice NZ chief executive Katrina Shanks said the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) had reported a drop in CFP numbers in other jurisdictions but New Zealand was holding steady.

She said it was launching a self-funded marketing budget for the CFP mark.

It will run activities around FPSB's World Financial Planning Day in October.

She said advisers keen to differentiate themselves from the marketplace would look to things such as CFP.

CFP adviser Nigel Tate said there had been some "natural attrition" this year as CFP adviser stepped down.

But he did not expect it to last.

"My gut feeling is we should start to see CFP numbers increase as the legislation is embedded."

He said advisers who were pondering applying for a licence did not have the bandwidth to also go through the CFP process.

Simon Hassan, who heads the Financial Advice NZ certification committee, said there were two or three new CFPs at each meeting of the committee, of which there were four or five a year.

Tate said financial planning had been left out of the upcoming Financial Advice NZ conference.

“I think there’s still work to do on that. There are not many comprehensive financial planners in New Zealand.”

But Shanks said the schedule was comprehensive with tax matters,estate planning, ESG issues as well as an economic update and presentations from Icehouse.

There have been 410 registrations for the conference so far and Shanks said they expected about 550 attendees.

Tags: CFP Financial Advice New Zealand