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Niko Kloeten
Niko Kloeten
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Regulation is an adviser’s friend

Friday 14th of September 2012

Angus Dale-Jones, who was previously director of supervision at the defunct Securities Commission (now the Financial Markets Authority), now sits on the other side of the table as a consultant to the financial services sector.

Part of his job is helping businesses deal with compliance issues and he said people often react to regulation rather than taking a “front foot” approach to it.

“I do a lot of positioning work to help people stay a step ahead of the regulations.  It’s about saying, let’s try and understand what business directives suit us and how can we structure the business in such a way we can operate in the regulated environment?” 

A key point many advisers seem to have missed, Dale-Jones said, is that the regulations not only provide protection for consumers but for those who give the advice as well.

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All things said are great aspirational goals for a great financial advice industry, it mirrors what both the legislation and the code requires. However, like most things discussed it talks about what's expected not how it's done. The hardest aspect of financial advice today isn't what it is, it is how it is done. The how only comes from those that have done it, the how is only provided with examples. Guidance documents that spell out what's required along side how it it done. We’re still dealing with the same issues we started with in 2021, figuring out the how. And figuring out the how in every advice business is consuming resources that could easily be shortcut by the FMA demonstrating what they are expecting. It's not about “do it this way” its about this is the sorts of things we’re looking for. In the absence of standards and expectations, guesswork prevails. That represents significant risk to FAPs and the result is onerous overcooked advice processes for multiple advice operations and undercooked she’ll be right for single operators focused on getting the work done. Both approaches have potential for harm and as its been said earlier, leaves advisers open to explain they haven't been speeding with the authorities have pulled them over. The advice industry needs guidance on the how we know the what already.
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Who is responsible for notifying policy changes?
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To correct errors in my previous post: "policies, templates, and controls" should read "policies, processes, systems and controls", and "is more conductive" should read "is more conducive".
1 day ago Paul Flood
FMA outlines its latest expectations for advisers
The goalposts haven't shifted, and no-one is moving the hole to the side of the green just to mess with the twilight burglars. The phrasing of the opening sentence ("having policies, templates, and controls in place is no longer enough") might suggest otherwise, but the wording is unfortunate. Having policies, templates, and controls in place was NEVER enough - it is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition of "playing by the rules" since 15th March 2021. A new player to golf might completely miss the ball on their tee shot - a swing and a miss. The wise coach/mentor/official knows that adding a stroke to the scorecard at this early stage of the player's development could have a deleterious effect. A reminder of the rule and the sanction - not applied at this early stage of development - is more conductive to continued participation. Focus on learning to hit the ball in the first instance, and move on to applying the penalty once the basics are firmly bedded in. No rule change, just a firmer application of the existing rules as the golfer matures.
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2 days ago agressively passive