The two professional bodies are holding a joint conference in June and said it was the first step towards closer collaboration.

But they have so far have brushed off suggestions that it the beginning of a merger.

But adviser Brian Klee, of Special Risk Insurance, who last week announced he was leaving the industry after 40 years, said it did not make financial sense to have two organisations serving the number of advisers in New Zealand.

“I strongly believe the IFA and PAA must integrate into one body to reduce the fees advisers are being asked to pay to belong to a professional association.”

He said having a joint conference was a good step forward.

”I would like to see the two merge. There would be two disciplines within the one organisation but it is highly achievable. What may stop it is personalities but with the present personalities there is more hope of it happening now than there has been for the last couple of years.”

PAA has the majority of mortgage advisers while most investment advisers are with IFA. Both have risk adviser members. Klee is a life member of the IFA and also took out a PAA membership.

He said balancing the interests of both risk and investment advice was an ongoing issue for the industry. The insurance market had lost its focus after insurance and investment advisers were merged, he said. “In retrospect, it was not a good idea.”

Klee said he remained an RFA when the Financial Advisers Act came into force, even though as a CLU he was working to the level required of an AFA.

“It didn’t make sense to go down the RFA at my stage in my career. A lot of others felt the same way. The added costs on the business were not valid, but CLUs are no different from AFAs in in how they operate in terms of the code.”

IFA chief executive Michael Dowling told Good Returns there were no plans for a merger at this stage.

“There’s too much stuff we should be involved in, if we were to wrap up our resources looking at a merger it would mean we weren’t spending time on the things we ned to spend time on, such as the Financial Advisers Act review and professional development opportunities.”