David Boyle said there were big changes ahead.

“The big challenge around advice is New Zealanders understanding the value of advice and ultimately paying for it as well,” he said.

The industry also needed to get more people involved in providing advice, he said. “The industry is getting smaller, we need to ensure there is good quality advice. For a lot of New Zealanders, they need somewhere to go, somewhere to understand the basics and get a framework. Investment advisers and planners kick in as people have built up an asset or a substantial amount of money, so they can start planning what to do with that.”

KiwiSaver would be a catalyst, he said, as New Zealanders reached retirement with more money in savings than they had in the past.

“They will need a plan because at the moment they just blow it, spend it. Three’s a genuine need for good quality financial advice. The industry needs to show the benefits of advice and start promoting it so people see the value from it.”

With increasing regulation, such as that around DIMS, Boyle said many advisers might choose to sell their businesses or join a bigger provider

"They might decide to sell the business and think ‘it’s not what I want to do going forward, it’s getting too hard’. Second, they might align themselves with a product provider, that could be bank or other provider out there who will give them the range of research information and the platform they need to provide advice, but aligned to the provider’s product.”

But he said an area of growth could come from independent advisers with no alignment. “They will build a framework to provide that kind of advice for New Zealanders, it could be both online and could be face-to-face.”

He said there was an important role for good quality advisers in the market. There could be a place for advisers in the Commission’s programmes, such as dealing with workplaces.