In late July, Wellington-based financial services firm FoxPlan was publically censured by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) after five of its representatives were found to be offering services they were not permitted to give.

The FMA found one of FoxPlan’s Auckland-based nominated representatives had wrongly provided an investment planning service to some clients and that four other FoxPlan representatives incorrectly informed clients they were an AFA or financial planner.

The FMA stopped short of taking court action against the firm saying an official public censure and remedial action would be an appropriate penalty.

Three of FoxPlan's owners - John and Sally Killick and Warwick Walker, have trusted adviser status with Financial Advice NZ.

Good Returns readers commented on the original article asking whether their Trusted Adviser designations were still valid.

However, while Financial Advice NZ chief executive Katrina Shanks says she won't comment specifically about the FMA's ruling, she says all members are held to the same professional standards regardless of their Trusted Adviser status.

"The Financial Advice NZ Trusted Adviser mark indicates that an adviser’s level of qualification, experience, and focus on ethics has been recognised by us, the professional body for financial advisers," Shanks said in a statement.

"The Trusted Adviser mark is only eligible to individual financial advisers and not entities."

Financial Advice NZ Trusted Advisers have met the following criteria:

- a qualification in Financial Services (Level 5 or higher)
- providing regulated financial advice to retail clients for at least the last three years
- committed to a professional development plan and 20 hours of CPD every year
- attends the Financial Advice NZ three-hour Professional Ethics workshop at least every three years
- be protected by professional indemnity insurance as expected by a professional

Shanks says Financial Advice NZ has a robust disciplinary process that would deal with any member who was convicted of fraud, serious financial crime or other serious issues.

"The purpose of the disciplinary process is to reinforce Financial Advice NZ’s commitment to high ethical standards and engender public confidence.

"We hold all members to the same standard of ethics, practice standards and rules of conduct, regardless of whether they have the Trusted Adviser mark or not."

The FMA says FoxPlan has established and implemented an action plan to address the issues identified and that "once a FoxPlan adviser engages a client and advice is likely to be given, the adviser must disclose FoxPlan’s reliability history to the client, which would include the public censure".

Reliability events have a prescribed disclosure period of five years but are not legally required to be made publicly available on a financial advice provider’s website, but do need to be disclosed during the advice process.

FoxPlan has disclosed the censure on its website but attempts to contact FoxPlan about the issue have not been successful.