FANZ addressing industry shortcomings with best-practice examples

He was reacting to the Financial Market Authority's report on the insights it has gleaned from its monitoring of advisers and Hakes said the report was “balanced, insightful; the tone was right” in acknowledging this is the first year since new regulatory rules came in from March 17, 2023.

While it was favourable overall, the FMA's 60 monitoring visits to advice businesses and examining interactions with about 350,000 clients found some gaps, many of which come down to inadequate paper work.

“Naturally, everybody is having to adjust” to the new rules, Hakes says.

If clients are provided with good advice, “ultimately, this builds consumer confidence” and the industry needs to recognise which areas need improvement.