Weekly Wrap: Regulation, tax and facts

Our focus this week has been on the new regulations advisers face, and trying to make sure readers understand some of the issues.

Friday, December 14th 2007, 3:23PM

Two of our stories this week have dealt with this, with comments from the Professional Advisers Association and the Investment and Insurance Advisers Association.

Today's story reports that the ISI is seeking a legal opinion on part of the changes. As the bill is written, advisers won't have to disclose commissions when selling term life.

Earlier in the week PAA chief executive Dave McMillan gave his view on the bill, particularly around what the likely impact is on competition in the advisory industry. He suggests some of the changes don't really make sense.

One of the other areas of change is tax. This morning the government has released a new set of ideas around the taxation treatment of life insurance. Click here to find out what is on the agenda.

Another insurance story today outlines how a review of the human rights laws has highlighted some tricky legal conundrums for the industry.

Another on-going theme at the moment is alternative assets. Currently ABN Amro has an offer which closes today; Macquarie is promoting the Celsius fund; and Savings and Loans has series two of the Kauri Notes in the market. Click here for the summary.

During the week Russell Investments released some research which suggested that alternative assets are going to play a bigger role in portfolios.

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Over on depositrates.co.nz we have had a few updates on events, including the latest payout to Provincial Finance debenture holders, NZ Finance securing two additional funding lines (one new and one extended), and PSIS launching an online account.

New appointments this week include Chris Lee appointing a new person to his team (someone well known to many advisers who use listed/corporate debt) and a new role for Barry Read.

Since the OCR announcement, the past week has been reasonably quiet with few rate changes. The most significant changes have been that Westpac has withdrawn its 21 and 33 month terms and replaced them with a 30-month term of 9.25%. Meanwhile, BNZ has added a new rate to its mix, namely a 7-year fixed Classic rate. The rate is 8.69% versus its standard rate of 8.99% and its Global Plus rate of 9.14%.

The final edition of the NZ Mortgage Mag for this year is due out soon which has some great information for people involved in the home loan business.

If you would like to receive a free sample copy of the mag all you have to do is send us your details. We've made that easy for you, click on this link, fill in the details, then sit back and wait for your copy of the NZ Mortgage Mag to arrive.