PAA president Bruce Cortesi and IFA president Michael Dowling are heading the working group to develop the new adviser association.

A series of forums starts on January 31 in 11 centres around the country, with the aim of gathering more feedback from advisers.

There has also been online consultation conducted.

Cortesi and Dowling said the feedback so far had covered a lot of the broader themes of the development of the association.

The forums would enable the working group to get into some of the details that required more conversation, such as what role Financial Advice NZ could play in consumer education.

“That is one of the most important questions on the agenda,” Cortesi said.

The pair said advisers had shown strong levels of support for the new organisation, and most who had offered feedback so far had had similar views and expectations for it.

Dowling said he had been surprised at how similar a lot of the responses from the adviser community had been. “I was expecting vast variation that we would have to tiptoe through but that has not been the case.”

“There is a general consnsus within the different subjects and issues that have been presented for discussion. We haven’t seen widely differing opinions,” Cortesi said.

“That’s consensus across RFAs, AFAs, QFE advisers, it goes to show the majority are after a better industry and a better way of doing things, with greater transparency, and are interested in placing the consumer at the focus of what the inudsty is doing.”

Five hundred advisers have registered for the forums so far. Dowling and Cortesi urged others who were interested in attending to register ahead of time.

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