Transitional licensing for the new financial advice regime started on November 25. As of last Friday, 38 transitional licences had been approved and none had been declined.

One estimate is 2,300 licences will be issued and there are less than 200 days (including weekends) until licensing closes. 

Adviser Peter Wannan said his application for an individual FAP licence was turned around in less than two weeks.

Advisers can choose whether to apply for an individual licence as an individual or as their company, identifying themselves as a financial adviser working for it.

Wannan said the only confusing aspect of the application was having to go to the Financial Service Providers Register and enter his details there first. “I had to go to the FSPR, apply for the fact I was going to apply then leave it for 24 hours then go to the FMA.”

Jon-Paul Hale agreed the application process was not difficult. “The initial licensing aspect is more about just getting the people on the playing field. There are no checks of whether you are up to standard.”

Katrina Shanks, chief executive of Financial Advice New Zealand, said the understanding of how to begin the process was the trickiest bit.

“People struggle to think how to get in. They don’t think to go to the Companies Office.”

People who were previously licensed under their own names but wanted a FAP under a company name would end up with two entries. Shanks said there was an option to get a refund of the original registration fee but the process to obtain that was confusing for some people.

“Other than that it’s positive. We’re telling people to take their time because you do have to think as you go.”

Some advisers were unsure about whether to take a FAP licence in their own names or operate as an authorised body under an entity FAP, Shanks said.

She said advisers who applied for a FAP licence in their own names would not be able to refer to themselves as financial advisers, only financial advice providers, but those who were an authorised body under an entity with a FAP licence could.