Death of small advice firms exaggerated: FMA

The new regime starts on March 15, at which point everyone giving personalised financial advice needs to have a transitional licence, or to be working for an entity that has a licence.

To apply, would-be financial advice providers need to register on the FSPR with the relevant financial advice service at least 24 hours before they started their licence application.

Financial Markets Authority director of market engagement John Botica said there were about 400 entities that had registered for the FAP service with the FSPR but had not yet gone on to the next step.

He told an FSC webinar that he spoke to one adviser who thought that his transitional licence had been granted but he had only received notice that his registration with the Companies Office had been successful.