What advisers want to see in 2013

Institute of Financial Advisers president Nigel Tate said he would like to see a bit more promotion from regulators about who advisers are, what they do and how they are qualified.

“A lot of practitioners are spending a lot of time explaining that to consumers but many say ‘I don’t care, I’ve known you for 20 years, where do I sign?’”

Tate expects the introduction within 12 months of some form of simplified disclosure regime, similar to that used in Australia by ASIC, to allow advisers to more easily scale their advice.

“Scaled advice doesn’t necessarily mean lower quality advice but it’s not so in-depth and doesn’t have to be a 20-page document; you can do four to five pages and make it a bit simpler.”

Tate said he would also like to see less sniping between Authorised Financial Advisers (AFAs) and Registered Financial Advisers (RFAs).

“There needs to be more focus on good standards which are not exclusively the domain of AFAs; there are some very competent RFAs out there I would consider to be professionals.”

Murray Weatherston said he hopes that global markets settle down into something like the “old normal” and interest rates start to rise again.

“You’ve got a situation where interest rates are at rock bottom because the outlook for economies isn’t strong, but in the last year equity markets rose quite strongly; it seems to me to be quite contrarian to each other.

“I’d like to see central banks suddenly start raising interest rates because they no longer think the bottom is going to fall out.”

Weatherston had another, non-financial wish: “I’d love to see the New Zealand cricket team perform a lot better.”

Comments from our readers

On 8 January 2013 at 10:51 am Amused said:

Murray Weatherston wants the central banks to suddenly start raising interest rates? He doesn't seem to appreciate that rates are been kept low purposely around the globe to “try” and stimulate activity and to get the World’s economies going again. We are a long way away from been able to say that things are back on track by any stretch of the imagination. If interest rates were to increase suddenly now at the present time it would be worst thing that could possibly happen for most countries and the heads of the various central banks damn well know it!

P.S. We’d all love to see the New Zealand Cricket team perform a lot better but some things in life just aren’t a reality.

On 10 January 2013 at 9:59 am Ylife said:

I totally agree @Amused

On 14 January 2013 at 9:39 am semi retired RFA said:

As a RFA I quite agree with Nigel. It is time for the snipping to stop. There are professional's in both regimes. Equally there are people in both regimes that I would not give the time of day to.

As someone who has part of their income from interest I agree with Murray. Let's get those rates up....

Geeze, I would stay away from commenting on cricket Amused! It is far from amusing although probably easier than picking the market.

What advisers want to see in 2013

Simplified disclosure requirements, less volatile markets and less bickering between AFAs and RFAs are among the things advisers are hoping for in 2013.

Tuesday, January 8th 2013, 8:04AM 3 Comments

Comments from our readers

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