EDITORIAL

Survey reveals what keeps advisers awake at night

If I had to describe the state of the mortgage advice market at the moment, I’d call it challenging. That is clearly borne out by the results of our annual survey.

The gloss has come off; some people have had enough.

But in saying that, there are also many positive things happening.

We are nearing the end of the getready-for-full-licensing timeframe; mortgage advisers are accounting for a significantly bigger share of home loans written to the banks; and it is clear more people want to use your services.

Another positive is NZ Home Loans taking a majority stake in the Link Financial Group (LFG). This deal shows a high level of confidence in third-party distribution, and just as importantly gives the LFG access to a big pool of capital.

After all, NZHL’s parent company has sold most of its assets including KiwiWealth, Hatch and its insurance arm to various parties. Plus, Kiwibank has been moved to a different government entity.

What keeps you awake at night?

In our lead article this issue, we do a deep dive into how advisers are feeling - through an analysis of the recent survey.

One of our regular questions is, “What keeps you awake at night?” Regulatory issues and turn-around times for applications always top the list.

This year we added a line about clientdebt servicing levels. Unsurprisingly, this featured highly amongst the top concerns.

It is going to be an issue which continues for some time, as probably at least half of the borrowers on fixed rates still have a loan which has a sub 4% rate.

There is a lot more pain to come. But it is also the time where advisers can really demonstrate the value they add to clients, therefore locking in the increasing market share for which advisers account. It is a time of hard work, but also future opportunity.

Our big call

In the previous issue, I gave a big plug for the annual TMM conference. We then had to make a call, far too close to the event for comfort, to postpone it.

It was a hard call to make, but in hindsight absolutely the right one – for which we got a lot of support.

There were a number of reasons: the key one being the timing was not right. At the moment, it is clear that mortgage advisers are under the pump with changing market conditions, sharply rising interest rates and regulation issues.

We will be back!

The TMM Better Business Conference has been rescheduled to February 28 – and bar some extraordinary circumstances, it will go ahead.

Philip Macalister Publisher

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