Professional Advice

Life After Licensing: Start preparing for your regulatory return

1 min read

April 28, 2023

The first regulatory return for financial advice license holders is required by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) on 30 September 2024.

It may seem like many months away, but many in the financial advice community are preparing now for their regulatory return reporting cycle that starts on 1 July 2023.

Are you prepared?

The regulatory returns, which are slightly different if you are a FAP Class 1, 2 or 3, will take preparation and planning. Reporting for the first period starts on 1 July 2023 and ends on 30 June 2024, so you will need to start collecting key information in just two months.

For example, licensed advisers will need to provide information on topics as wide ranging as replacement business, cyber security threats, and information about types of financial advice products provided. The number of complaints as of 1 July 2023 will also need to be provided.

The regulatory return questions are available and include five key parts:
• Business and infrastructure
• Licensed activities
• Complaints
• Outsourcing
• Business continuity and tech systems

The FMA have also started to undertake monitoring visits at adviser offices, where they will look to assess areas such as your business records, client files, processes, and other documentation to check that you are meeting your license obligations.

You’ve worked hard to get your license, so if you haven’t thought about preparing your systems and processes, don’t delay.

FSC resources to support financial advisers

The FSC has a range of resources to support financial advisers through these changes.

Over the past couple of years, we have run a number of Get In Shape 1 hour webinars and our day-long Future Ready Advice Summits, which will help you to start to think about what you need to do to meet your obligations.