[Weekly Wrap] Wanted: More advisers

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How to attract new financial advisers into the sector, and then how to keep them there, have been topics of discussion on the Good Returns site this week.

Friday, May 31st 2013, 3:05PM 1 Comment

by Susan Edmunds

The need for more authorised financial advisers to provide investment advice in particular has been flagged several times over the past fortnight.

The FMA raised it as a concern at the PAA conference and IFA delegates also discussed it.

At the IFA conference, I attended a workshop for advisers who were worried about how to recruit and retain new advisers.

Some of the statistics bandied about were sobering stuff - AMP's representative Felicity Cain said it was possible that only 10% of new advisers stayed in the industry for the long haul.

Considering that a lot of financial advisers are getting near the time where they might like to think about retiring, or selling their business to someone else, that is a concern.

IFA award-winner Stephen O'Connor added his two cents' worth earlier in the week, saying that the industry has a long way to go before it will be considered a "profession".  This seems like a vital step, especially if there is a move away from commission-based payments.

Today, Claire Matthews spoke at the Capital Markets Symposium on her paper about KiwiSaver member flows. Her data about what draws KiwiSaver members to put their money in a bank provider was interesting, but she, too, said there are far too few advisers available to help people making big decisions about their savings futures.

In other news, Graeme Wheeler hinted earlier this week that an OCR cut could be possible if - and it's a big if - the Auckland housing market can sort itself out. There's more money coming for TOWER shareholders and some movement on the people front.

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