Securities Commission director of Financial Adviser Regulation (Implementation) Mel Hewitson says at the moment both the individual and the company have a legal obligation to register separately, with advisers operating under this structure needing to pay two registration fees.

She says the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) is currently considering how registration could be streamlined for sole traders in this situation.

"The government will need to ensure that individual advisers and the companies that are operating in the financial adviser market can be identified, also that the integrity of the dispute resolution arrangements and the authorisation framework under the law are not compromised."

Officials expect to be able to provide an update on these proposals by the end of this month.

 Hewitson also says the Securities Commission has updated the AFA Get Ready Checklist to make it clearer which are legislative deadlines and which are recommended administrative ones.

"The recommended deadlines help us to plan the licensing assessment resources we need to get you all through the gates on time.

"Since we can't know exactly how many potential AFAs are out there, tracking numbers registering on the FSP register and booking with ETITO for the Set B exam really helps our planning."

She says if too many leave it to the last minute to apply then there's a real risk that some applications won't be processed by 1 July.

"None of us want to be in that situation, so a big thank you to those who are onto it already."

She says advisers can also sign up for Securities Commission web alerts to hear about financial adviser regulation updates as soon as they are available.