Weekly Wrap: DIMS ding dong

Friday, March 7th 2014, 4:40PM

There is a story we ran on Good Returns this week which illustrates some of the problems with regulation. The piece was about DIMS and suggested the Financial Markets Conducts Act was overkill on these services.

Since we ran the story a number of high profile and experienced advisers, with plenty of knowledge around regulatory issues, have been discussing the topic and can't agree on the interpretation of the rules. This is a regular issue which comes up with regulation and indicates the people who put together and police the laws need to do a much better job at communicating what they are trying to achieve.

Another story which got me thinking is around The Warehouse's announcemnt yesterday that it plans to launch itself into the financial services space. It's also worth noting that they plan to poach some highly experienced professionals from other companies.

What got me thinking on it was that this is another example of big corporates which significant reach getting into the financial services space. It's a move that probably isn't a threat to financial advisers per se, but it is a move which gets consumers used to financial products, particularly insurance. The other examples we have seen of this recently are nib's direct consumer product and Southern Cross's offering.

Dealer groups featured in the news early this week with talk that some of them may join together. At this stage no-one is saying much, but it is fair to say advisers are well-served with of options - arguably too many.

We've had plenty of market related stories this week including:

Opportunities in under-valued resources

Emerging markets tough call

« Warehouse tackles financial services

IFA working on pro-bono offering »

Special Offers