The NZFAA has conducted a survey of 2500 people with the aim of increasing understanding of the public’s view of the industry.

The findings will be a foundation for the organisation to examine advisers' value proposition – the theme of the organisation’s first annual conference.

Ninety per cent of the NZFAA’s members are RFAs, mostly operating in the risk and mortgage space.

Chief executive David Yates said it was too soon to discuss the findings of the survey.

But he said the NZFAA was concerned about raising consumer awareness of the benefits of seeking advice, and the increasing gap between RFA and AFA advisers. “Proposed changes to the code for AFAs and talk about raising the educational standards for AFA qualification will exacerbate this issue.”

He said there was also a lack of quality structured professional development opportunities for RFAs and AFAs. “With proposed changes to the code for next year, it will become increasingly important for quality structured CPD to be available to advisers.”

Submissions on proposed changes to the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advisers closed just over a week ago. Yates said while many of the changes were positive, the proposals to make it easier for RFAs to offer KiwiSaver advice and changes to CPD requirements could lead to increased complexity in the industry, further confusion for an already confused public and increased compliance costs for advisers, particularly around the need to keep qualifications up-to-date.

He said consumer confidence in the advisory industry needed to be built up in the wake of high-profile cases such as Ross Asset Management’s failure.

“One of the key challenges for advisers is to understand that the value of their service proposition for clients lies, not in the products they sell, but the advice and services they are able to provide around those products. This is fundamental, particularly in the IFA space as distribution models evolve to take advantage of opportunities provided by technology. Our conference this year is designed around this theme. It is also a core element of our service proposition for members as we move into 2014.”