Insurance advisers and mortgage brokers will be allowed to be voluntarily authorised under legislation covering financial advisers, Commerce Minister Simon Power said today.A number of changes were made to the Financial Advisers Act earlier this year to c
Insurance advisers and mortgage brokers will be allowed to be voluntarily authorised under legislation covering financial advisers, Commerce Minister Simon Power said today.
A number of changes were made to the Financial Advisers Act earlier this year to clarify that people providing advice solely on insurance or credit products were not required to be authorised.
However, as a result of this change, insurance advisers and mortgage brokers expressed concern they could no longer be authorised if they still wanted to be.
In response to their concerns the government has agreed to develop regulations allowing voluntary authorisation that will likely be passed before December.
“Today’s announcement clearly sets out the Government’s aim of encouraging all financial advisers to aspire to be authorised,” Mr Power said.
The financial adviser regime is governed by two pieces of legislation – the Financial Advisers Act and Financial Service Providers Acts.
The Acts, which will be fully in force by July next year, require all financial service providers – including financial advisers – to be on a public register and, if they provide retail services, to belong to an approved dispute resolution scheme.
