A total of 189 financial advisers were asked by Companies Office to update details of the dispute resolution scheme (DSR) they belong to – or risk being deregistered. While most have complied, a handful risk losing their license.
Julie Morris, Registry Operations Manager, at Companies Office says that of the advisers she wrote to with a 17 August deadline to respond, 129 have updated their registration and are compliant with legislation.
“The Registrar intends to initiate deregistration for the remaining 60,” says Morris. “A notice of intention to deregister gives FSPs 20 working days to update their registration or object to deregistration.”
Morris says all financial service providers that provide financial advice services to retail clients must belong to a DRS.
“When a financial advice provider (FAP) records the engagement of a financial adviser on the Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR), they must indicate whether they will be covering them under their DRS membership,” she says.
“If the FAP is not covering them, the financial adviser must join a DRS in their own name and add the DRS membership details to their registration within 10 working days of becoming engaged to the FAP.
“If they fail to provide DRS membership details where required to, they may be deregistered.”
Financial Advice NZ advises the following procedure to confirm dispute resolution membership details:
- Login to your online services account using your RealMe details
- From the FSPR dashboard, use the ‘FSP registrations’ tab to find and select the FSP you need to submit DRS information for
- Select the ‘Financial Services’ tab, and click on the ‘Maintain Financial Services’ button
- Scroll to the bottom of the screen to the heading ‘Dispute Resolution Scheme’
- Select your DRS from the drop-down list and enter your membership number in the field provided. If you are exempt from joining a DRS, select ‘Exempt’ from the drop-down list and provide details of the section in the Act or Regulations that apply to you
- Read the declaration and confirm that you’ve done so
- Review the information you’ve entered
- Click ‘Submit’