ASSET roundtable participants - including Fidelity Life head, Milton Jennings; ING CEO, Helen Troup; Suncorp Wealth Management NZ managing director, Sean Carroll; Alan Rafe, Chatswood Consulting; Pinnacle Life partner, Ed Saul, and; Darren Gannon, Newpark Financial Services chief - concluded the QFE rules could easily return the insurance advisory back to the tied agency model.

Under the QFE proposals, institutions and other groups that choose to take on the role, would act as quasi-regulators with advisers acting under their umbrella escaping some of the direct individual compliance obligations.

Troup told the ASSET roundtable that the Securities Commission's comments that "they're looking for the big manufacturers to set up QFEs... will just push us down the tied path and I'm not sure if that's the right beneficial outcome for clients".

Jennings said while the QFE regime would encourage advisers to move back into tied agency agreements "it's not going to be a massive movement".

"But there'll be a certain number of advisers who won't want to go through the exam process to register as AFAs [authorised financial advisers] and will look for the security of a QFE," he said.

Risk advisory professional body representatives Peter Leitch, chair of the Professional Advisers Association, and Ron Flood, Life Brokers Association president, echoed the concerns of the manufacturers about the possible outcomes of the QFE proposals.

"The business is starting to come around to tied agencies again and that's something we'll be fighting against for a number of reasons," Flood said.

Leitch said under the QFE rules "it's not a level playing field anymore".

The full ASSET insurance roundtable story will appear in the next edition of the magazine, due out next week.