GoodReturns news

[Advertorial] TNP offer a variety of interactive sales-related training workshops that are proving to be highly successful and are giving new risk and mortgage advisers the boost they need to get started in this challenging industry.

Former Bridgecorp director Robert Roest has been sentenced to six and a half years in jail, the same term handed down to fellow Bridgecorp director Rod Petricevic.

Aaron Gascoigne has moved on from Canvas Investments and is setting up a new funds distribution firm.

Independent advisers’ pain could become Macquarie Private Wealth New Zealand’s gain, with small advisory businesses its main focus as it looks to nearly double its adviser force.

This week we saw signs of consolidation in the financial adviser industry; also, new research revealed big implications for income investment while life insurance figures showed a worrying decline.

The government-owned Kiwibank, who kicked off the latest mortgage rate war last month with a one-year fixed "special" on the same day Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard opened the door to a possible official cash rate (OCR) cut, has belatedly matched most of the rest of the market's across the board cuts.

Asteron has increased the commission paid to advisers’ across its entire disability income products range and its mortgage repayment cover.

Partners Life continued to gain market share in the March quarter for the fourth successive quarter, although new business was down for most companies compared with both the December quarter and the March quarter last year.

The banks are competing fiercely over fixed-rate mortgages but none have cut their floating rates.

New business in most product categories of life insurance written by Financial Services Council members fell sharply in the March quarter compared with both the previous quarter and the March quarter last year.

Low interest rates combined with increasingly attractive yields on the share market mean traditional ideas about the role of bonds and stocks need to be re-examined, new research suggests.

Sovereign has appointed two new members to its board, David May and Stephen Ward.

Financial advisers need to take the news with a grain of salt if they want to achieve the best results for their clients, according to a well-known international market commentator.

ASB Bank has joined a number of other banks in cutting fixed-term mortgage rates, slashing its one, two and three-year rates.

Imposing more regulations on KiwiSaver funds could stifle the best performers, says Fidelity Life chief executive Milton Jennings.

Russell Hutchinson surveys the market to see who is recruiting advisers - and makes some startling findings.

Liontamer winds things down; Independence under spotlight; Why we have under-insurance; Reserve Bank learns lessons from GFC

Highlighting the intense competition building up in the mortgage market, BNZ has slashed its 18-month fixed “Classic” mortgage rate to 5.10% “for a limited time.”

This months's case studies take another look at non-disclosure when the clients say "But I told my adviser/ broker..."

The biggest story on Good Returns this week involved a law that could make prospecting for new clients much more difficult for advisers.