Whose interests are Consumer serving?

You really do have to wonder whose interests are being served by the Consumer survey of financial advisers released yesterday. The release had all the hallmarks of a well-orchestrated media campaign. Some key media were given special treatment and advance copies of the survey and interviews on radio and television were jacked up well before the official release. All common PR tactics to gain maximum exposure. What is hard to understand is why do such a survey of advisers now when the industry is on the verge of a new regulatory regime designed to help increase confidence in the sector? The survey does the total opposite. It’s like spending money to fix an old washing machine when you are in the process of buying a new one. Consumer is clearly using this to drive more sales of its magazine. As a publisher you know topics which will generate reader interest and sales. The womens’ magazines do this cynically each week with the celebs they put on the covers. We, too, know the sorts of topics which will generate reader interest and make sure we maximise readership from them. The Retirement Commission’s role is questionable too. Surely it should be helping improve the advice sector? Looking at its role, it was one of the funders of the survey and its response has been to use the survey to promote a new service it is about to launch. Have a read of its release here. It looks like they don’t want people to use advisers, rather they would rather New Zealanders become DIY investors using its website. Then there is the Securities Commission, who was another funder of the survey. Surely it too should be trying to move the sector forward rather than clobbering it? The IFA wasn’t a funder, in fact it appears to have not had much involvement other than nominating a couple of advisers for the survey panel. Indeed it hasn’t, to our knowledge, put out any statement. The president appears to be unavailable. The CEO, who you would expect to front, doesn’t. Instead it is left up to the chairman – who happens to be the husband of the Securities Commission boss Jane Diplock. The most interesting thing we have learnt from the survey is that Consumer chief executive Sue Chetwin lives with a sharebroker. Wonder what sort of advice she gets?