Nothing to get philosophical about

Ever wondered who is the most highly qualified, practising financial planner in New Zealand?

Wednesday, January 13th 1999, 12:00AM

Ever wondered who is the most highly qualified, practising financial planner in New Zealand? While we can't tell you the answer to that question the Advertising Standards Complaints Board reckons Wellington-based Dr Richard Renfrew - despite having lots of letters after his name - probably isn't.
Renfrew, in October, circulated a flier in Wellington which described himself as "New Zealand's most highly qualified, practising financial planner".
One of his fliers ended up in the mailbox of fellow planner Craig Wylie, who when he read the claim wrote to the board alleging Renfrew's claim was misleading.

Wylie said the claim would lead the reader to believe that Dr Renfrew's financial planning qualifications are superior to the qualifications of all other practising financial planners.
The board investigated Wylie's complainant and said, in its written decision, that Renfrew was highly qualified in the field of science, with a Masters in Science and a Doctorate in Chemistry, but in the financial planning field he held only a Diploma in Financial Planning.
It said the readers of the advertisement would most likely think that Renfrew holds the most and highest qualifications on the topic of financial planning, so only those ones were relevant to the advertised claim.
Yet this didn't appear to be the case, therefore the advertisement was misleading.
Renfrew, told the board his statement was "technically correct, the degree of PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) is correctly used without the area in which the study was undertaken".
He said people who attended the advertised seminar where given a disclosure of qualifications and prospects are given a disclosure statement in the first interview.
The board noted, however, that is not acceptable to remedy misleading advertising at the point of sale.
Renfrew also said the advertisement was changed when it was published in the newspapers to say he was "one of New Zealand's most highly qualified financial planners".
Despite making a change the board was still not happy.
It said the change did not resolve the complaint.
"That Dr Renfrew holds a Diploma in Personal Financial Planning is not evidence that he is one of New Zealand's most highly qualified on the topic of financial planning," it said.
Consequently, Wylie's complaint was upheld.

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