$5000 for each child and $100 matching top-ups, in other words, taxpayers' contribution required, right? wouldn't it be more effective to teach kids to learn how to save? and what is opportunity cost mean?

Mr. Cunningham comments that the value of trail books have limited to 0 value for a critical perspective and no one is going to buy a mortgage advice business if it only has a customer list, but if that customer list or database is already owned by a dealer group or on a dealer groups CRM the advisor does not own that information anyway so they don't actually even have a client list to sell, and if that dealer group has their own branded advisers Wouldn't the customer list be given to them to farm.

Westpac remains the only bank of the big four that has chosen to ignore the Commerce Commission’s directive issued last year about adviser clawbacks. These clawbacks, currently 100% at 14 months and 50% at 28 months, have been deemed by the Commerce Commission to hinder those clients changing lenders seeking a better deal on their home loan. Westpac told advisers last year their remuneration model was changing to better align with customer outcomes and regulatory expectations. Why then have they not also changed their clawback policy on adviser commissions? As someone else has pointed out above our head groups are no longer our advocates as they have done nothing to confront Westpac about this. Isn’t the whole point of the aggregator model to fight for your members? I don’t know about other advisers but aside from existing Westpac customers who need to rely on the first home loan scheme to secure a first home it’s increasing hard nowadays to recommend Westpac to anybody else. Westpac’s extra repayment policy is useless, they are frequently uncompetitive with interest rates for existing customers and yet they appear incapable of understanding why they don’t rank as number 1 or 2 currently on advisers list as a good bank for customers to have their home loan with. I think the above will be even more the case after midway through this year. As somebody said to me at a conference a few weeks back, what possible incentive do mortgage advisers have to keep their customers with Westpac from the 2nd of June?

Although the FMA was involved in subsequently setting up the CoFI principles it’s obvious from their subsequent lack of enforcement that the law might as well not have been introduced in the first place. I mention the elephant in the room i.e. the introduction of bank rate cards for mortgage advisers but advisers having no current ability to guarantee/hold these interest rates for their customers. This means they don’t now have time to make an informed financial decision. By comparison, all front-line lenders at the banks apparently quoting from the same rate card can guarantee these rates are held for 1-2 business days minimum. This applies to both new loans and those loans been refixed, although the banks are now obviously pushing customers to refix online which is another subject for a different day. There is an work-around available to the above however that such a discrepancy exists today looks like an attempt by banks to discourage customers from using the adviser channel which I am sure if the Commerce Commission got involved now would constitute a clear breach of consumer law. That we work in an “advice orientated” industry which instead seems to be working against customers who choose to use a mortgage adviser is absolutely appalling. All the regulatory changes that have been introduced in the last few years essentially count for nothing if banks can be allowed to get away with the above. The FMA as a taxpayer funded government agency appears incapable or unwilling to enforce a law change introduced by Parliament. This pretty much sums up the current state of the Wellington public service which the Public Service Commissioner has previously said is no longer fit for purpose saying it needs to be overhauled. Where you might ask are the supposed advocates for the mortgage adviser industry on the above aka the aggregators and associations? You guessed it. Missing in action again… What a surprise.

JPHale, minimum number for concessions is 15, but discounts off the retail premium apply from 5 employees up. The govt could at least look to bring the FBT rate in line with personal income tax rates. Most I see have an FBT rate over 60%. And the government collects GST on the premium as well. Agree all medical insurance premiums should be tax deductible.