Liz Koh, founder of Moneymax, said there is a disconnect between the commission and financial advisers. She said it should not focus too heavily on low-income earners because there was only so much that could be done for them – such as helping them stay out of debt.

“Kiwis are not good at managing their money proactively. There is a large segment of the population on very good household incomes who manage their money ineffectively. They live from payday to payday despite their good incomes and if they are saving, they only save what is left at the end of a pay cycle,” she said.

“A more proactive approach would see them setting priorities on what they want to spend their money on and when. All it takes is a little knowledge and guidance to help them achieve this. There is so much untapped potential in this group which comprise middle income earners. I would love to see CFFC work with this group in a more targeted way.

"CFFC itself doesn’t have the resources to provide advice directly to people but it can provide more and better tools to financial advisers and work in partnership with them so as to enable Kiwis to improve their money management. The aim is for everybody to enjoy life more, free from money worries.”

But Tom Hartmann, the managing editor of the commission’s website, Sorted, said it was already clearly focused on the “middle class”.

He said it had strong interaction with financial advisers and viewed Sorted as a precursor to a conversation with a financial adviser.

“We know that good advice is gold.”

Sorted would have a role when the new advice regime came into effect in helping people find the right adviser for them, he said.

He said Sorted was intended to target people who were disengaged with their finances and needed to do more with the money they had coming in, or who were starting out in first jobs or first houses and needed to put things in order. "It’s a very middle-class audience. We do some things for more vulnerable consumers but mostly if you look on Sorted it’s definitely a middle-income audience.”