Blair Vernon spoke at the Commission for Financial Capability's decumulation forum in Auckland on Friday.

He said many New Zealanders had a consumption problem - both before retirement and in it. "That's the biggest challenge facing New Zealanders, their preparedness to spend on other things pre-retirement, not retirement savings or even the consumption of quality advice on how to accumulate. There is a belief they can carry on that consumption rate unabated in retirement and somehow be unhappy about the outcome. That's the conversation we are going to have to have in a somewhat crunchy fashion with new Zealand."

If the problem was not confronted, people could end up desperate and more susceptible to scams or unwise investments, he said.

But he said another problem was that there was a lack of people available to help those who needed it.

"Another thing that is a challenge for us is simply supply. The supply of advisers to help people in this journey. There are an awful lot of people who need help. They need help pre-retirement and they need help in retirement. We know our financial capability is limited but so too is the supply of people appropriately qualified to do that job."

He said AMP estimated fewer than 1000 AFAs were practising and a smaller number specialised in things such as discussions about retirement and decumulation.

"Whether we like it or not, even if there was a rush of people who wanted to get busy with this, there is no supply to deliver the required advice and I don't see that changing any time soon."

Vernon said 15% of his adviser force were over 65 and that would rise to 30% by 2020.

"They are unlikely to be available to help New Zealanders. That's an industry issue to confront because most of the products we talk about genuinely need advice. We have got to figure out the issue of supply but I see a very narrow pipeline of that for some time. It could be a 10- to 30-year issue given what we see in the industry and how many are about to leave."