The new association is now operating and taking on new members.

It had been suggested that eventually it might be able to take a regulatory role. IFA president Michael Dowling said in 2016 hat the suggestion had been put to the Financial Markets Authority, which wanted it to “walk the talk” first.

Financial Advice NZ practitioner director Bruce Cortesi has developed a proposal for a new commission structure – which some took to be a sign of the association moving to a regulatory position. Cortesi said he was not available for comment.

Financial Advice NZ chief executive Katrina Shanks said she would like to see the industry get to a place where its ethics and code and advisers’ business practices were at a level that was beyond what was required of regulation.

“We strive to service our clients and New Zealanders in such a way that you don’t need that regulation because the standard of what is provided is already so high.”

The association will operate a quality service mark for advisers, which will eventually become compulsory.

Shanks said the industry would need to assess what would provide the best scenario for clients, product providers and advisers and how that could be delivered – then comparing that to what was currently happening and tweaking if it was necessary.

“Adviser business models are what we should focus on. Regulation is the framework to work within, not telling you how to run your business.”

It was important to focus on what would build consumers’ trust, she said, so they could see advisers were behaving to a standard and had a strong model of ethics and code of conduct they could have confidence in.

Advisers were already operating in a fairly highly regulated sector, she said.