He has a real fear that “we are going to get the Australian regulatory regime” applied in this country.

If that happens maybe two thirds of the advisers operating at the moment will survive, but the other third will leave the industry.

Bevin, speaking at a Tower roadshow in Auckland yesterday, said there is no evidence that the advisory business in New Zealand is bad.

“There’s no widespread skulduggery,” he says.

Even if the industry was bad, “regulation will not stop the crooks.”

Another of his concerns is that regulation will reduce the scope for advisers to differentiate themselves.

Bevin says advisers have to build their brands and differentiate themselves in the market place, or build a brand around an association such as the Financial Planners and Insurance Advisers Association.

Advisers who do this can then charge a premium, he says. Bevin says there is a trend for governments to harmonise their regulations and to set up committees to make sure that similar regulations are implemented in different jurisdictions.

If that is the case then there is a real possibility that the Australian regime will be applied in New Zealand.

“I’m not confident that the government will get this one right,” he says.

The government has recently established a taskforce to look at the issue of adviser regulation.