After ‘how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?', one of the stranger questions I hear is ‘will we be allowed to not recommend a product when regulation comes in?'

There is a lot of hot air written about how all sorts of things will become free (or a lot cheaper) as many services move to the internet.

Over in the UK there is a bit of debate going on about whether commission is a defensible form of remuneration.

According to Dun & Bradstreet, 45% of working New Zealanders could last only a month on their savings. I immediately thought that's a great answer - now what's the right question?

A really good discussion paper on regulations for the new Financial Advisers Act has come out, and it's stirring up a good deal of debate. Here are just two strands of the tangled web.

Sometimes people get you thinking - Noel Vaughan, who started up Pinnacle Life - got me thinking recently about trauma insurance. Noel asked "what's it for?"

The difference this week between a professional organisation and an industry organisation was underlined by the actions of the Institute of Financial Advisers (IFA).

JK Galbraith was attacked as a communist for his red covered book on the great crash of 1929 – an event my Grandfather recalls well. This is a good reminder that folly springs eternal in human affairs, especially with regard to the money, which happens to be how we keep score in so many of our affairs.

A group of brokers told me the other day of a fire and general company – who shall remain nameless – that appears to have suddenly got a lot tougher around claims, and in a way that goes beyond mere prudence.

Conventional wisdom has it that when you buy in bulk you get a better deal. Once again, the insurance industry confounds this notion. This is because insurance relies on the ability to discriminate between risks.

Do you know how much life insurance business was sold last year? What about the amount paid in claims? How about how many people died? Then what they died of…

As people study the new adviser legislation harder and contemplate exactly what it means, a question has emerged around needs analysis.

If you want Mr. Sensitive – talk to an insurance broker. In this wonderful world of acceptance and tolerance, the very words we use to describe difference are frowned upon.

Insurance makes you feel wealthy – in ways that credit never could.

Over the years I often see stats that show more people own life insurance than disability insurance. I had not thought, until recently, to ask why – duh.

One broker who was recently incarcerated in a hospital awaiting a by-pass operation got acquainted with a fellow inmate.