Increased trail commissions
Royal & SunAlliance made a number of changes to its unit trust products, including a decision to increase trail commissions to 0.4% annually. This new rate applies to existing business and any new business.

It has also decided to close the New Zealand Sharemarket Export Asia Trust and the Income Priority Trust.

Investors in Royal & Sun Alliance's Cash Management Trust are now able to direct funds from their bank accounts to the trust, as well as vice versa. This means that RSA now have telephone deposit as well as telephone withdrawal facilities.

AMP first FPIA authorised training organisation
The Financial Planners and Insurance Advisers Association (FPIA) has awarded AMP with Approved Training Organisation status. AMP is the first organisation to achieve this recognition.

FPIA chief executive Phillip Matthews says that the ATO recognition allowed advisers participating in AMP’s training programmes to replace the current FPIA introductory training and mentoring requirements with an unbroken two year involvement as an AMP adviser.

"Our independent auditor has compared AMP’s internal training programmes and found they are the equivalent of the standard Adviserlink course the FPIA requires for all new members. In addition he has found that AMP’s supervision and mentoring structures achieve the same ends as the association looks for from our mentoring arrangements" Matthews says.

He says that FPIA membership progression by way of association with an ATO in no way signalled a lowering of the standards the member needed to reach.