Now is a great time to reflect on the year to date and ask yourself:

• Have we got our business structure right to maximise the opportunities available in the new advice regime?
• What do we need to do to be licence ready and fully compliant?
• How can we deliver an even better service to our clients?

It only takes a couple of minutes to read our ‘6 tips for a lockdown reset’, so grab a coffee and find out how you can use lockdown to answer the above questions and reset.

1. Solve the FAP conundrum: The industry has a huge number of licensed and unlicensed (authorised bodies) FAPs. Now is the time to decide if you want to progress your transitional FAP licence into a full FAP licence or become an authorised body under a licensed FAP. If you want to obtain a full FAP licence, then the process is relatively painless if you have the right templates from which to build your policies. We have tools to help; and we’re only a phone call or email away if you have any questions.
2. Know your compliance status: You and your business must be compliant with the legislation, regulation, code, conduct obligations, licence standard conditions and product provider contract obligations. You do not have two years to achieve this. Full compliance was required from 15 March 2021. Do you know if you are compliant and how do you prove it? Now is a good time to organise a compliance assurance review to identify what improvements may be required.
3. Catch up on educational requirements: Half of the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services focusses on competence, knowledge, and skill requirements. Now is the time to check your current educational status. Do you need to do the ‘Closing the Gaps’ module to meet the regulatory requirements, do you need to do an additional specialist strand to meet Code Standard 8, or do you need to complete the entire New Zealand Certificate in Financial Services (Level 5) V2? The Strategi Institute team can field your call or email and provide you with the answers. Don’t leave it until just before the end of the competence transition period to start your upskilling.
4. Be licence ready: Being licence ready involves correctly documenting good business processes which outline how you meet your FAP obligations. This needs to happen BEFORE you apply for your licence. Our article – ‘Turn FAP licencing into a competitive advantage’ explains the business benefits of doing this earlier rather than later. The Strategi compliance and licensing team can provide further guidance, templates, and assistance to fast track your licence preparation.
5. Get to grips with good governance: Good governance equals compliance and profitability. The FAP licensing process is heavily focussed on governance and oversight. Now is the time to upskill to meet the FMA’s expectations. Enrol now to complete the Governance for Financial Advice Providers (Small Business) (Level 6) Microcredential.
6. Re-design your advice process: The FMA expects to see a documented advice process outlining how the FAP meets the requirements of the Code, the FMCA conduct obligations and the unit standards in NZCFS5(V2). Now is the time to fully review your advice process, see how you can deliver advice faster, simpler, and more cost effectively and in doing so, ensure clients understand the advice and enjoy the process. Talk to us about new advice delivery technology, new templates and how some of New Zealand’s most innovative advisory firms are breaking new ground.

The Strategi team are fully operational throughout lockdown so don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about how we can help you with your lockdown reset including tools and resources to get you started.