Our Duty of Care

All financial advisers are regulated under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMC Act), as amended by the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act 2019 (FSLAA). You need to meet certain duties and obligations.

Code of Professional Conduct

Anyone giving advice to retail clients must comply with a new Code of Professional Conduct for financial advice services. This outlines the standards of ethical behaviour, conduct, client care, competence, knowledge, and skill we need to meet when giving regulated financial advice to retail clients in New Zealand. 

A person who gives financial advice must:

Part 1: Ethical behaviour, conduct and client care

1. Treat clients fairly
2. Act with integrity
3. Give financial advice that is suitable
4. Ensure that the client understands the financial advice
5. Protect client information

Part 2: Competence, knowledge and skill

6. Have general competence, knowledge and skill
7. Have particular competence, knowledge, and skill for designing an investment plan
8. Have particular competence, knowledge and skill for product advice
9. Keep competence, knowledge, and skill up-to-date

Duties

When giving any financial advice to retail clients, we must:

• Take reasonable steps to ensure our clients understand the nature and scope of the advice being provided, including any limitations about that. 

• Where there’s a conflict of interest we must give priority to our client’s interests.

• At all times exercise care, diligence and skill.

• Comply with the  Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services requirements for ethical behaviour, conduct and client care and meet the competence, knowledge and skill requirements.

• Only recommend financial products to clients that are offered in compliance with the FMC Act and its regulations.

• Ensure we follow the disclosure regulations and that any information we make available to clients is not false, misleading or incomplete.