[Weekly wrap] Looking for consolidation

In what is likely to become a common theme in the financial adviser industry, Macquarie Private Wealth New Zealand has indicated its plans to bring advisers from smaller firms aboard as it looks to increase its adviser force from 40 to 70-odd over the next couple of years.

Consolidation following regulatory changes tends to happen early on, as after a few years everyone is used to the new environment and operates with it as little more than background noise. In that sense it is probably a smart move by Macquarie to make attractive offers to struggling advisers now, before either they learn to cope with the new regime or they get approached by another of the big boys.

Also this week, international market commentator Jonathan Pain told Good Returns that the Western "prism" through which the news media view the world (Good Returns excepted of course) means that countries like Indonesia, which has a large, young population, rapidly growing economy and expanding middle class, only make the news when a bomb goes off or an earthquake/tsunami strikes.

An interesting point he made was that getting exposure to these rapidly-growing emerging market economies doesn't require direct investment in them; in fact, it is often a better bet to invest in companies from "submerging" nations such as the US that have exposure to these markets such as Apple.