[Weekly Wrap] Forward planning and looking back

This week advisers were told they needed to look at looming opportunities but also be prepared to report regularly on what they had been doing.

Friday, September 20th 2013, 11:20AM

by Susan Edmunds

NZ Funds' Richard James said regulation would give the investment advice industry a boost - but to shore up their businesses, advisers would need to think about targeting different markets, such as young people. The key to attracting them would be to maximise the potential of KiwiSaver, he said.

James has said in the past that countries with large-scale retirement savings programmes have usually seen their adviser forces grow. He said the same was likely to happen here.

But the Finology conference this week was told that advisers should also think about how they catered for clients at the other end of the age spectrum.

There, the message was that understanding changing demographics - and the country's ageing population - was paramount for advisers. Understanding the needs and preferences of older clients was important for advisers of the future, several academics told the crowd.

The regulator has been never far from the headlines this week - it has been looking at NZX advisers and how they provide class, DIMS and personalised service. One of the questions it is asking is how well advisers with large client bases are providing personalised support. The first phase of monitoring didn't seem to throw up too much of concern but the FMA is about to embark on another, where it will look at issues in more depth.

The FMA held its quarterly stakeholder meeting earlierin the week, where Sue Brown said that it would be more prepared with regulation for the Financial Markets Conduct Act than it had been for the anti-money laundering legislation, for which the rules were only really bedded down at the last minute.

The FMA also wants advisers to deliver a fairly in-depth report on who they are and what they've been doing, every year, starting in the middle of next year. It's fair to say the response to this story was not universal celebration.

There has also been a lot of health insurance news this week, from nib, Southern Cross and the sector in general.

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