[Weekly Wrap] KiwiSaver-only adviser mooted

Undoubtedly the biggest news of the week was the naming of four advisers that are due to hear before the Financial Advisers Disciplinary Committee next month. They are the first advisers to be referred to the committee by the FMA since regulations came into force two years ago.

One of the things which we have seen before is that the wheels of justice turn slowly and can't keep up with the movement of defendants. In this case one of the advisers facing charges, Stephen Musaphia, is now with Preferred NZ, however the charges relate to his time at another firm. We saw the same thing happen a couple of years ago too with a case before the courts.

Part of the reason we have had an FMA week is that the organisation held its second quarterly stakeholder meeting where it discussed some of the things it was working on. The story which received the most headlines was around KiwiSaver, particularly its recent review of 15 managers and its decision not to name two managers who needed to up their game. The FMA still won't name them, but it does give some more details on what was going on here.

One thing is clear is that more change is on the way for advisers. Today's lead story on Good Returns reveals the FMA is about to put out some more discussion papers and guidelines and also the Code Committee are considering a KiwiSaver-only adviser category.