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Time for the association mega-merger?

Thursday 5th of February 2009

All this talk about changes in companies, structures and staffing got me thinking about what could happen in the advisory industry.

There has been talk about the number of associations we have representing advisers and where they all fit together. Maybe now, when there is a lot of pressure on funding and membership numbers, we could see some of them get together.

The most obvious is that the PAA and LBA join together in some form. This got close a while back but was scuttled by some IFA people. Since the PAA and LBA have similar memberships I can see real benefit here. Also each have some very complimentary parts.

The state of the NZMBA is something which got me thinking about this subject too. As reported, it axed the chief executive role held by Megan Salt last year due to financial pressures. I would have thought that at a time of regulatory change and a time when associations need to deliver benefits to their members having a full-time CEO would be a must.

But then again mortgage brokers are increasingly looking to sell life insurance and even KiwiSaver, so maybe it makes sense that one of the logical marriages is between the PAA and the NZMBA. It’s worth a thought and I have no idea if anything is happening here, but it would be worth talking, especially now there is a change of personnel at the NZMBA.

The other thing which is useful to note is that the PAA is somewhat in the box seat here as it has been playing the long game and is financially the most robust of all the associations.

And this thought also made me check the Companies Office to see if the IFA had filed its accounts. There is still no sign of them, although they have traditionally completed them around November each year. The last accounts were filed November 27, 2007.

Hopefully members will get something soon.

Whatever, I think it would be worthwhile if the various associations opened dialogue with each other over these big issues.

PS: There is still no word on the appointment of a commissioner of financial advice, but there are a couple of interesting responses to the Blog about it.

Comments (1)
Nigel Tate
This talk of mergers of differing organizations has not changed over the past three years or so and still it continues to be full of emotive rhetoric. Sorry Phil but your comment re the IFA accounts highlights your own preferences and biases, a quick look at the Companies Office website shows that there are no PAA accounts since 2007 either, how long will their members need to wait for something? Robert, your Professional Advisors Association(PAA)was borne out of the disillusion of the Prudential Life Underwriters Association when Prudential were gobbled up by what has become Sovereign Assurance and a very light review of their accounts will show the sources of their revenues. Your attempts to degrade professional Institute memberships only serves to show your rather low level of understanding of Professional Organizations structures worldwide. The FAANZ was formed in part to negate the occurrence for these types of misleading comments from individual entities, and Good Returns in my view should be reporting on comments made not initiating these comments.
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15 years ago

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