Nominations sought for MACs

Financial Advice New Zealand is looking for advisers to populate its member advisory committees (MACs).

Tuesday, January 7th 2020, 6:00AM

The MACs operate on a two-year term and are designed to offer practitioner insight to the association. New committees will take over on April 1. The appointments are voluntary and the committees meet monthly, or more often if required.

Chief executive Katrina Shanks said the association's board would determine the configuration of the committees.

People currently on the MACs can choose to reapply or to stand down. Shanks said some had indicated they wanted to remain while others were moving on.

Tim Fairbrother, chair of the investment committee has indicated that he will not seek reappointment. Regan Thomas, chair of the insurance committee, said he planned to seek reappointment. "There's more I want to do."

Shanks said the committees were "on a journey" and maturing into their roles.

"That's what all new organisations do."

The past year had been reactive to change, she said, and keeping up with changing regulations had been a big focus of MACs. Their real value would come when they were able to proactively influence policy-makers and drive industry-led initiatives for better outcomes for advisers and consumers.

"That's what we are moving towards It's an exciting time to be apart of an MAC."

She said she had been happy with how they had operated so far but there was more work to do to strengthen the relationship between the association and the MACs and how she interacted with them.

Thomas said he had been trying to steer the committee away from responding to regulatory stuff and "try to start a few conversations of our own".

"We've been adding value almost invisibly over the last 18 months or two years. A lot of it doesn't get seen. I get people asking me what exactly we are doing to justify the subs and I want to start stuff that people can engage with a bit more."

Expressions of interest are sought until March 2.

Tags: Financial Advice New Zealand Katrina Shanks MACs