Investment advisers must disclose more information

28 February 2008

News release

Investment advisers must disclose more information to investors from tomorrow

If you visit an investment adviser tomorrow you should be given a disclosure statement explaining the adviser’s qualifications and training, the products they give advice on, and the fees you will have to pay.

“Investors should be given the disclosure statement without having to ask for it, and before they pay any money to an adviser,” Securities Commission Director Primary Markets Kathryn Rogers said today.

To alert people to their rights to information from investment advisers the Commission has published a brochure “Choosing an investment adviser”. This is available at www.seccom.govt.nz or by phoning 04 472 9830.

Copies of the brochure have been sent to a wide range of organisations including public libraries, investment advisers, church and ethnic groups. A distribution to Citizens Advice Bureaux is being made shortly.

The Commission has also worked with the Retirement Commission to include the new disclosure requirements on www.sorted.org.nz and a booklet associated with Sorted will be published and widely distributed early next month.

“Advisers have had since the law was passed in October 2006 to prepare their disclosure statements,” Kathryn Rogers said. “We expect that they will have them ready for their clients tomorrow.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media