Inside Money: AFA-awareness day

Tick, tick, tick.... today is the final day for financial advisers to get their applications in if they want to be authorised in time for the official July 1 launch of the new regime. Photo / Thinkstock

This is the last day at the Securities Commission for Angus Dale-Jones, director supervision.

His work there is done.

For Dale-Jones' March 31 departure (he assured me no lavish tax-payer funded lunches were involved) coincides with the final day for financial advisers to get their applications in if they want to be authorised in time for the official July 1 launch of the shiny, new regime.

So far only 224 have been anointed as authorised financial advisers (AFAs) with a further 721 "being processed".

That's far below the original figure of 5,000 plus AFAs that was being touted by authorities at the beginning of this process way back in the 18th Century.

There are a couple of reasons for that: one is that the government relaxed the rules around who would have to be an AFA (exempting insurance-only advisers); the other is that people generally leave these things to the last minute.

Deadlines, schmedlines.

Dale-Jones reckons there will be a flood of AFA applications today, not that he has to worry about the processing of them. He's picking a final AFA tally of between 2,000-2,500.

While no-one's suggesting the financial adviser regime we ended up with is perfect, it will, as a minimum, result in an identifiable industry. Those who decide to take the AFA oath have had to pass some kind of hurdle. According to advisers I've spoken to, that hurdle is more about organisation and tedious paperwork than a particular intellectual challenge - but it is still a hurdle.

Dale-Jones has jumped a few hurdles himself. Since arriving here in 2008 after almost two decades regulating with the Securities Commission trans-Tasman counterpart, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Zimbabwean-born Dale-Jones has had the rules pulled out from under him at least a couple of times as governments flip-flopped on legislation. Trying to forge a workable compromise out of a fractious industry always looked like hard work to me.

Nevermind, we got there in the end.

Dale-Jones, meanwhile, is off to consultant-land and will be offering his services as a 'compliance strategist' to the industry.

He says it won't just be large institutions who might look him up with sole practitioners "who don't have compliance resources" also his target market.

"It shouldn't be so expensive to get a couple of hours of good advice," Dale-Jones says.

And what AFA could disagree with that?