He been criticised in court over his handling of a $1.4 million estate.

Moyle was the executor of a will left by farmer Murray Dean, who wanted to provide an income for his widow, and for the money to be distributed among his sons, from his first marriage, upon her death.

A High Court judgment said the value of the estate had dropped by $230,000 over 10 years after Dean’s death - and New Zealand Financial Planning was charging more than $1000 a month as a portfolio monitoring fee. It also showed an unauthorised payment of $52,000 out of the capital of the fund to Dean's wife, also an executor of the will.

Moyle said the overpayment was a mistake, was small and was recovered so there was no depletion of the capital that was to pass to her stepsons when she died.

Justice Murray Gilbert found Moyle had "persistently failed over many years" to provide information to Dean's sons even though they were entitled to it and it was available.

But Moyle says he became the victim of a family dispute.  He said he heard from the brothers in 2006 and answered their inquiry.  “They wanted information and I said I was happy to [provide it] as long as the life tenant, their stepmother, was happy. My recollection is that she wasn’t. The next correspondence was six years later.”

In 2011, he was contacted by lawyers and Moyle sent information requested.  “They wanted more information that I didn’t have… they wrote to me on December 20 and said they wanted the information by January 14 or they were going to court. I couldn’t get the information from the accountant until the end of January.”

Moyle said the case had left him with a lot of concerned clients.  “The consequences for me are far in excess of the issue. I tried to act in the interests of my client, who wanted to look after his wife.”

He said it was detrimental to other financial advisers to have the case played out in court. “It paints the industry as self-serving, managing money until it’s all gone. What I’ve done wrong is accept the appointment in the first place.”

The investment had been for income rather than growth because his client wanted his widow to be in a sound financial position, he said.

Moyle was ordered to pay $1300 in court costs.

He has now moved his clients from NZ Financial Planning to a new company, Financial Planning NZ.

Moyle said he had no knowledge of a complaint reportedly made to the FMA about him in 2011.

READ THE JUDGMENT HERE

Wendy Russell, Dean's widow, responds: What family dispute? There has been no dispute to my knowledge. It seems also that [Moyle's] recollection about information being sent to the Deans has failed him. At no time did I suggest they they not receive reports. In fact, I was aghast to find this has not been done on a regular basis.