Weekly Wrap: Advisory Group Pick 'n' Mix

Breaking News: Capital + Merchant's receivers have delivered some awful news to investors today. It looks like they will only get back 8% of their investment. Put another way 92% of the investment has been lost. More at www.depositrates.co.nz

Friday, July 18th 2008, 4:30PM

Adviser groups continue to be the focus of much news at the moment. Readers of ASSET Magazine have recently seen our survey of the groups, and this week we have a number of stories on Good Returns relating to changes and the creation of new groups.

The most significant story is one we have already flagged, the creation of a group around advisers associated with Grosvenor. This group is due to launch next month and is billed as being one of the biggest independent adviser groups in the country.

The Blog last week on adviser regulation and the role "accredited institutions" may play has generated considerable comment from many in the industry. You can go straight to the responses here.

The other big story this week, was the announcement yesterday that the managers at Strategic Finance are buying the business back from Allco HIT with Bank of Scotland becoming a cornerstone shareholder. This, I venture, must be good news for the company and its investors.

Sticking with finance companies we also have a piece today where Dominion Finance disagrees with comments in one of the weekly business papers and in that process provides some more insight into the company.

In insurance news, besides the Apex yarn, we also we have Russell Hutchinson's latest column which raises a big question for life companies.

Knowing what proportion of risks are covered
If you walk into a shoe shop, pick up a shoe with a scratch on it, you wouldn't buy it. The problem with insurance is that this is harder to do – not usually life insurance, but more likely the murkier world of disability insurance. You can't always see the scratch until it's too late. More

One of the things I find interesting at the moment is that there are a bunch of new products hitting the market. The highest profile of these is undoubtedly the Cash PIEs.

The other one this week was Liontamer's new fund which takes an equity investment and makes it look and feel like a fixed income one.

And just on Cash PIEs we have added a comparison chart to Deposit Rates which shows the advertised rates along equivalent gross rates for 33% and 39% taxpayers.

Some of the other news this week includes: Gould Wealth Management approaching $400 million with its Vestar bid; NAB may buy ABN Amro units; Fruition Asset Management Pacific Fund returns 5.8%; Fidelity bonds resume payments.

There have been few changes to home loan rates this week as wholesale rates have remained pretty stable. However, that could all change next week. The Good Returns survey of economists shows that around half of them expect the Reserve Bank to ease the official cash rate next Thursday, which no doubt will lead to cuts in mortgage rates.

While there is a huge volume of fixed rate loans coming up for renewal, the signs are that new loan applications are well down. To see how they compare with last year, check out this story.

Our appointments page this week has more changes at AIG (with more to come), the appointment of a chairman to the IFA's Investment special interest group and coming soon a revamped Jobline page. If you would like to list a vacancy then please let Amy know (email her here).