Minister tells industry FMA fees will be comfortable

Advisers will be "very comfortable" with how much they will have to pay in levies to fund regulation, Minister of Commerce Craig Foss has told industry representatives.

Wednesday, May 23rd 2012, 6:00AM

by Benn Bathgate

The Minister met with a number of adviser body chiefs back in March when advisers' fee levels to fund the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Financial Advisers Act (FAA) was on the agenda.

"His indication to us was that our submission had been very helpful in helping them set the levies and that we would be very comfortable with the outcome," said Institute of Financial Advisers (IFA) president Nigel Tate.

"We came out of that meeting feeling very much that they had most things pretty much set in concrete, Craig didn't give any indication of having a desire to revisit anything unless we could show some unintended consequences."

Professional Advisers Association (PAA) chief executive Edward Richards echoed Tate's comments, saying "he [Foss] suggested to us that there would be no surprises."

Tate said his understanding is that the final levy structure will be in line with the IFA submission proposals of a separate levy of $25.40 for all market participants to fund the FMA, and $250 paid by AFAs/RFAs and $175 by QFE advisers to fund the FAA.

Both Tate and Richards said they believed the fees would not be retrospective, however both also said they had no indication of when the levy amounts would be announced.

"He [Foss] said at the time it would be out within the next month or so, and that's going back two-and-a-half months," said Tate.

Foss was unavailable for comment at the time of writing but Ministry of Economic Development communications adviser Alastair Stewart told Good Returns that Foss was leading the work on FMA fees and levies which "will be announced in due course."

Benn Bathgate is a business reporter for ASSET and Good Returns, email story ideas to benn@goodreturns.co.nz

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