Before I get into the nitty-gritty of RFAs becoming Authorised Financial Advisers, it's with much of pleasure I can invite you to visit our new news site specifically for mortgage advisers.

TMMOnline.nz is where we plan to deliver most of our news for mortgage advisers from now on. It would be great if you took a look at the site and gave some feedback on it.

We recently held the TMM Round Table where we discussed issues facing mortgage advisers with a panel of industry representatives. A full report of the event will be in the next issue of TMM which will be with you next month. In the meantime here's a bit about what we came up. There was widespread agreement that mortgage advisers had lifted their game in the past couple of years. But that came with a warning not to be complacent and judge the state of the industry when the market is so buoyant.

A key theme is regulation and the review of the Financial Advisers Act. Since the Round Table MBIE have released copies of submissions made on the FAA Review Options paper. One of the many early observations is that it appears none of the firms that specifically operate in the mortgage advice area made a submission. (Putting aside, of course, the big players like banks and Sovereign).

However, the Professional Advisers Association says do away with RFA and QFE designations and make all advisers Authorised.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

My question for you this week is: Should all RFAs become authorised as suggested by the PAA in its submission on FAA Review Options paper? You can send your answers to philip@tmmonline.nz