Classic hits of 2021 revisited (plus all the new releases)

Someone a lot smarter than me once advised me: “Boyle sometimes you need to look back to go forward.” And while I have been in a rush to say goodbye to 2021 for both personal and pandemic-related reasons, good advice is always worth following.

Let’s start with January, when – as you may recall – I released a mixed-tape of my predicted top hits for the NZ financial services industry in 2021, which included these four catchy little numbers:

• FSLAA financial advice regime;
• KiwiSaver fees and ‘value for money’ guidance;
• financial product advertising restrictions; and,
• doing the default dance

In hindsight, my fab four forecasts played out pretty much as expected while rising house prices, inflation, interest rates and the bull-bear tussle in share markets continued on high-rotation in media headlines.

But the shock number one in 2021 turned out once again to be COVID-19.