Price can't be sole selling point: FMA
Advisers who highlight price as the most important benefit when offering a new product came under the Financial Market Authority’s spotlight in the last quarter of 2012.
Monday, April 15th 2013, 6:00AM
The Authority has released its monitoring report for October to December last year.
During that time, the FMA made six verification visits, nine full visits and 20 stand-alone reviews of adviser business statements. The visits were in Auckland and Wellington and the statement reviews were for advisers across the country.
In its report, the Authority noted that under the Financial Advisers Act, advisers must exercise care, diligence and skill and must not engage in deceptive or misleading conduct.
“When providing advice, advisers must assess product suitability, explain the key features and any limitations of the product to the client and clearly articulate any limitation on the service being provided.”
The report said an adviser who only pointed out that the offered product was a cheaper option, without looking at other features, could have been misleading.
It directed advisers to examples of how insurance advice could be offered in line with those obligations, on its website.
The FMA also said advisers had conduct and record keeping requirements and advisers should be able to demonstrate how they fulfilled their care, diligence and skill requirements when offering services, as well as how they disclosed conflicts of interest around remuneration.
The FMA has also been reviewing AFAs who are licensed to offer discretionary investment management services (DIMS). It will release a report on its findings this month.
| « [Weekly Wrap] MRP process leaves a lot to be desired | IFA working on pro-bono offering » |
Special Offers
Comments from our readers
No comments yet
Sign In to add your comment
|
|
Printable version |
|
Email to a friend |
