Voluntary authorisation allowed

Cabinet has agreed for regulations to be developed to allow voluntarily authorisation under the Financial Advisers Act (FAA).

Power says a number of changes were made to the FAA earlier this year to clarify that people providing advice solely on insurance or credit products were not required to be authorised.

However, as a result of this change, insurance advisers and mortgage brokers expressed concern that they were no longer able to be authorised if they still wanted to be.

"Today's announcement clearly sets out the Government's aim of encouraging all financial advisers to aspire to be authorised," says Power.