IFA chief executive Fred Dodds and PAA chief executive Rod Severn said recent negative coverage of the industry, including the FMA’s report into churn, its report on soft commissions, coverage of poor Australian advice practices and some of the commentary emerging in discussions about the new code of conduct and law changes, were at risk of suffocating the good work that advisers did.

“The majority of advisers do add value,” Dodds said.

“Aspersions on soft-dollar commissions and replacement business are seen as an attack on the reputation and integrity of all advisers. That’s not fair.”

He pointed to the handful of cases that had appeared before the FADC as evidence of a low level of poor behaviour. “And only 24 advisers were identified in the replacement business report – none went to jail. Let’s put the numbers into context.

"I think we should remind the regulators that one of their objectives is to promote public confidence in the professionalism of advisers."

Former president Nigel Tate said the recent regulatory action seemed to be an overflow from Australia.

“They are looking for something to hang a review on, in my view. Any decent adviser who gives advice – how they are going to get paid is between them and the client. It’s not up to a government agency to come in and start mandating how things should be done.”

Dodds said the message to advisers was that they needed to get out and tell people how good they were – that could be done by associations, individuals we are all in it together.

Severn said product providers could do better, too. "Insurance companies are bad at not divulging the amount of money they give back to New Zealanders to make their lives better when they’ve fallen on bad financial situation. No one talks about that. All they see is the bad. If more peopled saw the good they might stop and think maybe I should get some insurance.”

Severn said it would be good to get a community fund going to promote the good work of financial advisers.