Now I am not one to regularly read the gossip pages in the Sunday papers, but being a rainy day yesterday I did have a glance at the Spy pages in the Herald on Sunday.

Seems financial services have moved into the hip scene with pictures from AMP’s Scholarship announcement do in the pages along with all the glitzy and glamour events the A-List crowd get invites to – you know; fashion, music etc.

The big revelation that is that AMP’s Henry Popplewell is our groover! Well he has to be with a caption like “Playboy and raconteur Henry Popplewell”.

Maybe we need to profile him in the next issue of ASSET.

(If you want to know more about the scholarships AMP awards to this page).

My Blogs have been few and far between in recent weeks, not because I have had nothing to say, rather things have been very fully-on at TPL.

In the past month or so TPL has acquired the assets of our largest competitor, and also now has the only adviser-focussed magazine in New Zealand.

ASSET is now the only print mag written for New Zealand advisers and the NZ Property Mag is the sole property investment mag.
For years I had said that we wouldn’t get involved in the property investment industry as our flag is firmly nailed to the advisory/funds management industry. Many people in this space consider property investment to be the evil enemy.

I had that view, however now I have a different perspective. That is; Many advisers are receptive to residential property investment (although they are reluctant to go on record), it is a market in need of a great mag, and property investment can play a part in a diversified investment portfolio.

TPL became involved in the property investment space three years ago when, at the request of the NZ Property Investors Federation,
it launched the NZ Property Mag.

This was a business opportunity that any serious business person couldn’t turn down.

Over the years we have worked closely with the federation to provide its members with news, data and information to make them better investors. Both organisations have benefited from a positive relationship.

However, during this time we have competed with a mag called, KPI, which has employed rather dubious business strategies and has tried to undermine our positive approach.

The good news for TPL, readers and others is that in the past fortnight TPL has formally settled on the purchase of the KPI assets.
This clearly cements our position as the largest publisher in the personal finance space, but we can also say that we publish the largest business magazine in New Zealand.

This is a pretty good milestone to achieve in such a short time.

While I have warmed to property, our flag is still nailed to the advisory/funds management mast and we will continue to advocate the services and provide the best publications in this market.

While you may have heard little from me – don’t worry there is heaps on the radar at the moment. Remember to regularly visit Phil’s Blog. To make it easier for you we now run the titles of the latest Blog on the Home Page of Good Returns under the Phil’s Blog image.

What’s going on at the New Zealand Stock Exchange with its acquisition of managed fund research house FundSource?

The deal shatters any perception that NZX is just a stock exchange which managers a market for trading shares. This deal has taken it further and further into the realm of being a financial services company – like so many others out there.

After all it does already have its own investment products in the Smartshares range of index funds.
What’s even more interesting is that the deal puts it into some very different market spaces, including finance companies, credit cards as well as managed funds.

While the NZX acquisition was a surprise, the fact that FundSource was being sold wasn’t.

Its owner, David van Schaardenburg, was no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the business, rather focusing on his role as a principal at NZ Funds. The business had been built up to good size and maybe it was time for a new owner.

The deal also does one other thing (I assume) and that is it ends what has been somwhat of an archilles heel for the business.

Many people in the industry had been critical that FundSource was too close to NZ Funds and commercially-sensitive information they may provide to the researcher could end up getting into the hands of a competitor.

There was no evidence this had happened, rather it was a perception which was often raised in the past by various people.

NZ Funds may indeed be one of the losers in the deal as it appeared that FundSource was a training ground for many of its staff. There seemed to be a long procession of people who worked at the research house then ended up at NZ Funds.

While the NZX move is somewhat surprising it is not unprecedented and also illustrates how much change is happening in this reseach space.

On the first of these points Morningstar, FundSource’s competitor, bought an Australian sharemarket research company earlier this year, which is sort of like the reverse of what NZX has done.

As reported in Good Returns there is plenty of other changes happening in the research area with new players coming in (PIR), others returning (Rapid Ratings under licence), and insurance researchers Plantech and Boss being sold.
Who is next?

It’s a pleasure to finally get a press release from the financial planners association, especially the one which arrived Sunday naming the appointment of the new chief executive.

As some readers will know I have been less than impressed with how the association has gone for the past year and a bit.

One area of criticism is around its communications. In my view they have been unprofessional and poor.

I must admit I laughed yesterday when I read this:

“We are delighted to have David on board and confident that he will continue the excellent work Ross has been doing in reconnecting with key stakeholders and leading us towards co-regulation.”

The association’s communications with some key stakeholders, such as media, has been poor and there are some questions around internal comms.

Here are some examples. Yesterday’s press release was the first in over a year, even though a huge number of things have been happening in the industry and the association has changed its name.

I figured if you change the name of your organisation, you communicate it to key stakeholders. Nope. Not in this case. We’ve seen nothing yet, hence we occasionally use the FPIA name.

You would also think with all the other changes going on in the industry and to the sector the association would at least send out some comments, but again nothing has been seen.

Some of the internal communications have been questionable too. Take this for example.

“We (the IFA) have been asked to appear before the Select Committee hearing into the Taxation of Investments on 23 August. I see our invitation to appear is probably our first ever before a Parliamentary Select Committee, and says a lots about the quality of our submission, and of the reputation of our Institute.”

This is so misleading it’s not funny. Firstly no-one gets asked to present to a select committee. You tick a box on your submission saying you would like to be heard. Therefore appearing before a select committee has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of a submission. Plenty of poor submissions are heard in person. Therefore it’s got nothing to do with the reputation of the institute.

For the record there were more than 3700 submissions made on the bill, and so far more than 50 submissions have been heard. From memory several hundred will be heard.

There are so many oral submissions the committee his holding hearings around the country – which is a little unusual for a bill like this.

To me comments like this to members are an example of what’s known as “spin” in political circles. Putting a gloss on everything to make things look good.

Let me make it quite clear, TPL and I have been big supporters of financial planners and we have done a lot over the years to help. Indeed we still support planners and their firms.

However, it isn’t our job to be unquestioning cheerleaders for the association. We will tell the story as we see it.

From my perspective a change is welcomed and I look forward to a far more constructive relationship with David Hutton.

PS: This issue and others were brought up with a senior board member in a lengthy meeting earlier this year, however nothing has happened since.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please email them through to me at Blog@goodreturns.co.nz

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