DIMS providers say it is getting harder to run a profitable business in the current regulatory environment.

New Zealand retail investors are being told they could soon find equities and bonds now longer give them enough diversification – and hedge funds could be the answer.

[UPDATED] Efforts are under way at the Financial Markets Authority to help address concerns from KiwiSaver providers that are believed to be limiting the advice members receive.

New Zealand’s financial services sector shouldn’t require a “dummy’s guide” to regulation, the chief executive of the Financial Markets Authority says.

The Financial Markets Authority is moving ahead with its plan to raise an extra $9.8 million in funding a year – mostly from market participants. But there is good news for AFAs and smaller DIMS providers.

“Real” financial advisers will have to embrace behavioural coaching for their clients if they want to sustain their businesses into the future, an investor behaviour expert now working with New Zealanders says.

ANZ’s chief executive says he is more worried about inexperienced property investors jumping into the market without enough thought than he is about the rate of house price growth.

Active management could be set to become a lot more important to investors in a low-return environment, one fund manager says.

Lawyers are calling for one supervisor for all AML/CFT reporting entities, as moves are made to delay more professions being brought into the regulatory net amid concerns about compliance costs.

Insurers are hoping the Financial Services Council will take on a strong advocacy role for advisers as its new chief executive takes control.

There are concerns some members of superannuation plans that are being wound up ahead of the introduction of the Financial Markets Conduct Act are not getting enough advice on what to do with the resulting windfalls.

Advisers are dobbing in other advisers they suspect have been inappropriately replacing insurance policies.

Advisers will need to change their industry culture to keep pace with the rate of innovation in the financial services sector, a new report says.

Financial advisers risk losing out on the next generation of clients to roboadvice, a New Zealand academic says.

The majority of existing insurance firms will probably go bankrupt within 20 years’ time as technology shakes up the industry and they struggle to keep pace, a commentator says.

New Zealand insurers offering life and health insurance would need to change a number of processes before they could start publishing data on the number of claims they accept.