A review to establish how accessible financial advice is for consumers is to be carried out by the FMA.
The organisation’s CEO Samantha Barrass told advisers attending Financial Advice NZ’s national conference in Christchurch it wants advisers to contribute to the initiative.
Addressing advisers at the Christchurch Convention Centre, Wednesday 2 April, Barrass said: “We know there are many positive impacts for consumers who receive good quality financial advice.
“This is about understanding how we as a regulator continue to ensure we regulate in a way that ensures quality advice reaches even more New Zealanders.”
Barrass said the review will help make the FMA’s outcomes focused regulation “real for you and us”.
“We encourage you all to provide feedback on the scope of this review, to make sure we are focused on the right topics,” she said.
Financial Advice NZ’s CEO Nick Hakes thanked Barrass for announcing the review at its conference.
“It is critical that New Zealanders feel they can access quality advice that is best suited to their personal situation,” he said.
“Our members were able to hear directly from the FMA about the major regulatory initiatives that impacts the important work that it does.”
Hakes also said he was pleased to be consulted on the terms of reference for the review.
The purpose of the access to advice review is to help the FMA understand both opportunities and challenges in relation to improving accessibility of financial advice to consumers.
It will focus on four key themes, which are:
- Consumer preferences and demographics
- Industry business models
- Digital advice and innovation
- Ease of provision of financial advice