Beware the Kiwisaver Bon Brush man

The most interesting story this week is the one about ASB finding out one of its advisers had been up to some dodgy things. You have to feel for the bank as they have put a lot of time and effort (as have other distribution channels) into ensuring this sort of thing doesn’t happen.

Friday, September 4th 2009, 9:53PM

The question I ask is: Would adviser regulation have prevented this from happening? You can see my thoughts and comments from readers in this Blog.

Distribution practices have been a bit of a theme during the week with today's story revealing that authorities are investigating door-to-door selling of KiwiSaver. (Did you know this was illegal?)

Also Good Returns has looked at proposed changes to adviser regulation and particularly the role of Qualifying Financial Entities (QFEs).

Many advisers will be concerned with how this is developing. It now looks like QFEs will have far greater powers than previously thought. This means that advisers in a QFE will be able to sell a range of products, not just those from the organisation which runs the QFE.

The second is a preview of the ASSET Magazine Insurance Round Table. A view of the participants was that the QFE model is a step back into the past and will effectively be a return to the days of tied agents.

The story which is hard to keep up with is the pass-the-parcel game going on with Dorchester, IRG and Foundry Asset Management. It seems that Foundry, backed by adviser Stephen Rogers and the people behind vodka company, 42 Below, are lining up to take a crack at listed financial services company Dorchester.

Meanwhile, Dorchester has signed a KiwiSaver distribution deal with Huljich which we detail here.

In our news next week we will reveal how much Phillip King sold his Tauranga-based advisory firm Ellerie Cornwall for, and will also tell you about a new website for the accounting market.

Depositrates.co.nz continues to be busy. This week we report on Marac and how it still has aspirations to become a bank, an idea that people should have bank accounts for life, and also that the ING CDO fund bailout cost ANZ more than previously expected.

Next week is OCR week and we have plenty of views from economists on what they think will happen. We wrap these up in our Experts View section over at www.mortgagerates.co.nz.

And to round the week off, we have the former boss at Russell Investments returning to the fold. If you have a new appointment you would like featured in the People section of Good Returns send details and a photo to info@goodreturns.co.nz

Have a great weekend.