A 100 working-day plan to bring the organisation to life finished last week.

The working group said the consultation process had highlighted priorities for the new organisation including advocacy, public awareness and standards, which had formed the basis of the Financial Advice New Zealand constitution and bylaws.

Next, the IFA, PAA and NZFAA boards will review those documents.

“It has been a comprehensive process; and necessarily so. When you’re re-imagining how an entirely new association can best support members and an industry that plays such an important role in New Zealand, it is essential to challenge current thinking and structures that exist largely by default," the working group said.

“For example, how to ensure that an association that represents advisers as a whole, does not lose sight of the specific needs of different types of advisers – mortgage, insurance, investment and financial planning. A crucial structure to get right – and get right the first time – and one that we have determined by listening to the industry and dispensing with outdated ways.”

By the end of this month or early June the working group hopes to have IFA, PAA and NZFAA board approval.

In June, an establishment board will be approved and the plan for the association released.

Michael Dowling, president of the IFA, said the boards would have to go back to their memberships for the requisite approvals.

“All going well we would like to be in a position to establish [Financial Advice NZ] on or about the time of the conference.”

There is potential for the association to take in more than just IFA, PAA and NZFAA members.

The working group has signaled that it would like to attract advisers who are not members of any body at present, and other groups may become involved.

Gary Young, chief executive of IBANZ, which represents general brokers, said his organisation was watching the progress with interest.

He said the membership of his organisation was quite different to that of the PAA.  IBANZ has been lobbying on Fire Service changes, for example, which Young said would not interest most PAA members

But he said there would be benefits to being part of a larger organisation. “Talking as a group would have more power. Where you have common interests it’s good to speak as one.”