The document, Baseline Review of Financial Advisers, was released in November 2012, but seemed to slip under the radar, unnoticed by many parts of the industry.

The document outlines the state of the financial advice sector before the introduction of the FAA, and the objectives of regulation as well as early responses to the implementation of the Act.

It said that pre-FAA, advisers had limited incentives to fully disclose information about financial products and their relationships with an issuer.

Some consumers were poorly informed about the level of expertise of their financial adviser and so could not judge the quality of the advice they received.

It said that could lead to good financial advisers being driven out of the market if consumers did not trust their advice and so decided they would not pay for it or seek it in the first place.

The FAA was designed to increase disclosure, competency and accountability of advisers, the review said.

Before the FAA was implemented, there were 11300 financial services providers. More than 80% were male and almost half had been in the industry more than 20 years.

In a survey of customers in 2011, 27% said financial advisers acted fairly and with integrity, 18% said their fees were reasonable and 24% said you could have confidence in financial advisers. Fifty-seven per cent of those who were currently using an adviser said they acted with integrity.

FMA head of legal Liam Mason said the looming review of the FMA was an opportunity to determine how well the FAA had performed in improving consumer trust in financial advisers since that review was published.

“Are we on track to develop a strong confident adviser community? There’s an opportunity here to say ‘is the regime working to support the lift in confidence?”

PAA board member Angus Dale-Jones said the document was a useful starting point for the review of parts of  the FSP and Financial Advisers Act. “What I really like is that it seems nothing is set in stone. There’s a collection of thoughts and where it might go but it’s not settled in any way.”

He said he was surprised at how few participants in the industry seemed aware of its existence. “I wonder if they ever intended it to get any sort of attention.”

The document can be viewed here.