"There are a number of groups – Mortgage Brokers Association, the Professional Advisers Association, the Life Brokers Association and the Society of Independent Financial Advisers…we’ve initiated discussions with some of those groups. I can’t tell you who yet."

Under the co-regulatory model recommended by the recent Task Force on Financial Intermediaries, industry groups such as the FPIA would apply to become an approved professional body (APB).

All financial advisers would have to belong to such a body.

Butler points to recent comments by Securities Commission chairman Jane Diplock that it is difficult for bodies such as the commission to deal with a large number of industry groups.

There is also the issue of economies of scale in a market of New Zealand’s size.

Butler is careful to avoid the terms “merger” or “takeover”.

“We’ve gone through that process a few years ago (with the merger of Investment Advisers and Financial Planners with the Insurance and Investment Advisers Association) and there’s still some feeling out there about it. So you need to go carefully with this sort of thing.”

Butler says there is also a large number of people working as financial advisers of some sort who don’t belong to any organisation.

“We’ve got 1300 members, but about 75% of the industry don’t belong to anything.

“We’ve got to be careful we don’t assume they are going to come to use because they have to,” he says.