Getting to Know: Nigel Scott

Who are you and what do you do?
I’m a director of Hobson Wealth Partners and the firm’s head of advice and distribution. My key responsibilities are working with our Advisers on a day to day basis and with Warren Couillault our MD on developing and implementing the Hobson Wealth strategy. As a board member, I also have responsibility for the oversight and governance of the firm. I’ve got almost 30 years’ experience in the NZ and UK financial markets in the key areas of wealth management, structured finance, credit and debt capital markets, risk and investment management. Having 10 years’ experience as a capital markets originator and the same amount on the wealth management side allows me to understand all perspectives of our industry.

If there was one thing you would like to change about the financial advice industry, what would it be?
More inherent trust in the benefits of advice and greater access to it. The way the industry is structured now there are a lot of people who need advice but can’t access it. These people naturally gravitate to getting advice from people they trust but aren’t necessarily qualified to do so.

What’s the best advice you have ever received?
Never waste a crisis! Throughout my management career there have been plenty of ups and downs but I’m a firm believer in that you learn more from your losses than your wins. The same applies in the investment markets too, the trick is to remember it. There’s a lesson to be learnt in every tough time.

What do you think the FMA has done well? What could it do better?
Cleaning up the reputation of the industry. The main principle of the FAA is to restore confidence in the industry and I think we’ve come a long way since the FAA came in. For example, looking back at the market pre-GFC, NZ was one of the few markets in the world where CDOs were readily available to retail investors which is a good example of product and investor mis-match. Any time products get overly complex and are not well understood things don’t turn out well. With the current regulations, we should see less examples of this. In terms of what the FMA could do better, we need to get more people into the industry. We have a very static number of Advisers in the industry which will eventually cause a succession issue. So, whilst we’re seeing an increasing need for advice, there aren’t enough qualified people to deliver it. That’s going to be a challenge for the industry to solve.