Commission plan: More work for financial advisers

Many more New Zealanders will be using the services of qualified financial advisers within the next 10 years, if the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income gets its way.

Thursday, April 3rd 2014, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

The Commission took feedback this month on a discussion document as part of its revision of its National Strategy for Financial Literacy.

It wants to update the document to provide a clearer more accessibly strategy.

Retirement Commissioner Diane Maxwell said New Zealanders needed to be encouraged to talk about money more and to increase their knowledge about saving, spending and investing.

Among the goals outlined in the discussion document are that everyone has a current financial plan and that everyone is saving and investing – and in a broader range of financial assets.

The document says a major challenge will be that New Zealanders are not accustomed to paying for financial advice. It says consumer trust in financial advisers needs to improve.

The Commission says one of its actions if the strategy is adopted will be to promote the benefits of financial planning, over the short, medium and long-term and grow innovative and accessible channels offering qualified financial advice to New Zealanders.

Its goal is for 50% more people to be using qualified financial advisers in 2025. It says only about 15% use an adviser at present.

Institute of Financial Advisers chief executive Fred Dodds said the strategy had financial advisers “all over it”. But he said whether the industry as it is today could handle the extra demand was another matter. “They want 50% more people using a financial adviser, that will require a whole lot more advisers in the marketplace.”

He said it raised the question of whether the Commission and FMA were in agreement on the plan. “It would be interesting to know – are they aligned on this?”

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