Why DIY investing and professional advice can see eye-to-eye

Much has changed since I stood centre-stage in February 2020 at the Auckland University of Technology about to crank-up the inaugural Financial Markets Authority (FMA) ‘Great Debate’.

Aside from the immense impact of the pandemic on our personal lives over the ensuing 18 months or so, the NZ financial services industry has been operating amid highly unusual, and volatile, conditions that include:

• incredibly low interest rates;
• equity market fluctuations;
• a new regulatory environment for advisers;
• changes to KiwiSaver default schemes; and,
• a regulatory focus on ‘value for money’ among licensed investment schemes.

Just one month after the first FMA event – which, if you missed it, saw the active investment team outperform their passive rivals – NZ along with most of the world plunged into lockdown as the COVID-19 crisis erupted.

After global markets crashed 30 per cent or more in a few days, investors were poised for worse. Instead, as we now know, the 12 months following the March 23 low in 2020 were among the best on record.