Katrina Shanks (pictured), CEO Financial Advice NZ took to the stage to open day one of the Ignite conference saying she has missed meeting members during the Covid restrictions.
“I can honestly say I have missed you over the last couple of years, and I am so excited to be with you today,” she said.
“This conference will get you to think about the world around you, about how dynamic, exciting, and how different it has become.”
The day’s first speaker, introduced by MC Rawdon Christie, was Christopher Luxon, leader of the National Party. Luxon wants to see the cost of doing business reduced.
“We’ve got to remove a lot of the costs that have been passed on to business by the government, because businesses then pass them on to the consumer with higher prices,” he said.
“You see it in the financial services industry. For example the CCCFA is a dumb piece of legislation that was intended to clamp down on pay-day lenders and predatory lending. The legislation was poorly drafted and ended up capturing everyone.”
Luxon says he has met the chairs of many of the banks affected by the CCCFA, and with CEOs from 18 banks in New Zealand to hear their concerns.
“We think it is very simple,” he said. “Next week we could debate it in Parliament under urgency and agree to an amendment that will take those banks off the table, and that will help keep things moving.”
Luxon also pointed to COFI legislation saying it was put in place due to concerns over questionable financial advice issues in Australia.
“Remember, the authorities here, the FMA, didn’t find any conduct issues in New Zealand,” he said.
“A lot of it [COFI] was jumping at shadows, the issues were out of Australia and were not present here in the local market here.”
Luxon also touched on inflation, a topic picked up by keynote speaker Jonathan Pain, a global economics expert and publisher of The Pain Report.
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?” he said.
“The fact is, reserve banks, in the US, Europe…Are intent on bringing down inflation, and that means slower economic activity and recession.
“Governments are calling it stagflation, and it means slower economic activity. But I see recession. With every squiggle and wiggle of the S&P 500 the trend is down.
“So you have to be adaptable, be nimble, be flexible. We are in a bear market. The perfect stagflation storm is upon us.”
He advised those in the audience to look through the spin, “…because the next two to five years are really going to shake things up”.
“The facts have changed and no amount of spin can change it.”
Financial Advice NZ
Chairman of Financial Advice NZ, Heather Roy, gave an update on the organisation saying it had 1,514 members with 284 new members, and a little over 25% of its membership being women.
She says 73% of its adviser members are linked to a licenced FAP, and 27% are working through an authorised body.
Of its members, 457 have been awarded the organisation’s Trusted Adviser accreditation.
“The Trusted Adviser mark helps advisers differentiate themselves in the market place,” said Roy. “It shows their commitment to professional standards are higher than those required by the regulations.”
Turning to overall membership numbers she said that due to the amount of regulatory change over the past year “…we have seen many of our founding members retire of leave the industry”.
“However, it is pleasing that we continue to attract new members and associations to replace them,” she said.
In a recent survey of its members, 85% agreed Financial Advice NZ is heading in the right direction.
“These are very positive numbers and they are consistently high for the third year running,” she said. “Members have also given us plenty of ideas as to where our future focus should be – watch this space.”