Wellington broker Finlay Abbot has been named New Zealand's top mortgage broker for 2008 by the New Zealand Mortgage Brokers Association.

Wellington broker Finlay Abbot has been named New Zealand's top mortgage broker for 2008 by the New Zealand Mortgage Brokers Association.

Failure to establish definite financial objectives and to implement a plan for reaching those objectives is the biggest money mistake of all. Putting off until tomorrow what should have been done yesterday is financial suicide on the installment plan.

Wellington

The Companies Office has laid criminal charges against the directors of Five Star Finance and Five Star Debenture Nominee, Marcus MacDonald, Anthony Bowden and Nicholas Kirk.

Finally it seems there is some good news for borrowers at the moment. After a long period of rising home loan rates there are clear signs that things area turning around.

Auckland

Select Committee hearings on advisers brought forward; New association officially confirmed, For Barr gets into KiwiSaver; DecisionMakers buys firm.
Parliament's Finance and Expenditure Select Committee is due to start hearings on the Financial Advisers Bill and the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Disputes Resolution) Bill this week.

Auckland

Tower Investments has appointed Roger Perry as head of retail - investments for Tower's KiwiSaver and retail managed funds.

New Zealand investment managers are bearish on almost every asset class according to the latest Investment Manager Outlook published by Russell Investments.

ASB Group Investments have announced the appointment of Stuart Bremner as the new Head of ASB Group Investments.

Another long term driver of value will be the emerging markets. We explain what constitutes an emerging market and their growing importance. We will be commenting further on these markets, including efficient ways to access them with your 2007 Morningstar International Equities (and overall) Fund Manager of the Year.

There are some difficult times ahead for global and New Zealand economies. Inflation (and potentially stagflation) is now a global problem. In this month's Tyndall comment, we profile the issues and drivers of these economic circumstances.

New tax rules for foreign funds, introduced last year, are so complicated that few investors will be able to do their own returns.