ISI calls for inevitable adviser registration

The financial planning and investment industry must face up to the issue of adviser reg-istration sooner or later, according to Vance Arkinstall, head of the Investment Savings and Insurance Association (ISI).

The financial planning and investment industry must face up to the issue of adviser reg-istration sooner or later, according to Vance Arkinstall, head of the Investment Savings and Insurance Association (ISI).

Debate about compulsory registration of financial planners has died down since flaring up last year when the New Zealand First party made an issue of it, claiming the industry was rife with malpractice.

At the time, New Zealand First chief Winston Peters promised to make adviser registra-tion an election issue but the subject failed to capture the public imagination.

Following New Zealand First’s abysmal election result (the party polled less than five per cent nationally and only scraped into Parliament on the back of Winston Peters’ slender victory in his own seat), the registration debate has completely fizzled out.

However, Arkinstall says it is only a matter of time before someone else raises the regis-tration matter and the industry should get in first.

“The industry will do itself a service if it addresses the registration issue and takes the high ground,” Arkinstall says.

“If we don’t, we leave ourselves open to challenge and criticism.”

The ISI is also working closely with the Financial Planning and Investment Advisers As-sociation (FPIA) to develop better education and training standards for the industry.

Arkinstall says a joint ISI/FPIA group has been set up to examine the best ways to achieve improvements in educational standards and quality of advice.

“The working group is mainly looking at the Development Trust and how this funding can benefit the education and training of advisers,” he says.

The ISI and the FPIA are also cooperating on plans for this year’s FPIA conference to bolster the quality of the event.