[Weekly Wrap] The evolving face of AMP

Some weeks are notably much quieter than others. This has been one of those weeks - as long as you are not a politician, particularly a National Party one.

AMP has cropped up in the news this week. This is a company I find quite interesting at the moment as it is evolving away from its traditional, tied agency, life insurance business to something more, let's say contemporary.

Talking to managing director Jack Regan this was week, was interesting (as it always is). Part of the change is that with a higher tax impost looming for life insurance companies there is a need to grow other parts of the business. 

He runs a line that risk advisers are going to face change, and potentially big change, as these tax changes come into effect next year. Regan suggests that a good way to understand what is likely to happen is to look at the wealth management space. This has gone from having high margin retail products to ones with a much lower fee base, thanks to KiwiSaver.  Investment advisers are challenged with this change and few have really grasped, or embraced, the new KiwiSaver world.