by Paul McBeth
Manager of strategy and corporate relations Michael Frampton told advisers at a Code Committee roadshow in Wellington that he was confident ETITO will have the capacity to meet adviser demand with eight organisations already signed up as delegated assessment organisations, and a further 21 organisations in active discussions with the education training provider.
"We're pretty confident there'll be adequate capacity," Frampton told the Wellington audience. From Friday this week, advisers will be able to reserve times for assessments, beginning in June, he said.
Frampton warned advisers against putting off booking their assessment too long, even though minimum code standards were still uncertain. A late rush would constrain the ability to get everyone accredited by December's deadline. Of the 850 people who had used the ETITO's self-evaluation tool on its website, about half would require some form of training, he said.
"There may be a dim view taken by those who make the decisions if there's underutilised capacity reported," he said.
There have been growing concerns in the sector that the December deadline may not be achievable, and code committee chairman Ross Butler today reiterated that parts of the code may be delayed until legislators and regulators tidied up the problematic areas of the Acts. Still, the majority of the code would come into effect from December, and Butler said advisers should take steps to be as prepared as they possibly can.
In response to a comment from the audience, Butler confirmed that advisers will still have to be registered by November 30, as the legislation requires, and that it was the authorisation process that might be pushed out by any delays.
Butler said a couple of sticking points for Parliament's Commerce Committee, which is currently reviewing a bill to amend the original legislation, are around the definition of investment transactions and to what extent they should be captured by the legislation, and also on whether foreign advisers will have to be authorised under the local regime.
Paul is a staff writer for Good Returns based in Wellington.
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