Ethics, compliance and professional practice

Strategi offers a seamless range of independent compliance services, risk identification training and advanced knowledge programmes to help businesses understand their risks better and to develop interlocking strategies to minimise their exposure to compliance risk.

While compliance is a necessary cost of doing business, it can also be a way of finding better ways of doing things, improving the quality of advice you give and the service you provide, and empowering your people to be conscious of the value they can bring to your business.

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Templates, publications and resources

Ethics, compliance and professional practice manuals, templates, guidance notes and other resources.

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Courses

2015 Annual Report of the Financial Markets Authority

Aim: To present the Annual Report of the Financial Markets Authority for the year ended 30 June 2015. Outcome: Completion of this module will enable financial advisers and market participants to understand how the FMA has performed when the results of its activities for the year ended 30 June 2015 are compared with its strategic priority targets, and the results of the previous year... Read more

Courses

A guide to the FMA's view of conduct

Aim: To outline for financial service providers how conduct is the FMA’s ‘lens’, through which it examines what providers do, how they do it, and how that translates to what providers’ customers experience. Outcome: Completion of this module will help financial service providers and financial advisers to: Understand the FMA’s view of what constitutes good conduct Assess their own... Read more

ABS annual confirmation

Standard Condition 1 of the Standard Conditions for Authorised Financial Advisers requires AFAs to maintain and keep current a written ABS in accordance with the most current published version of the AFA ABS Guide. In addition AFAs must provide annual confirmation to the FMA that their ABS is current. AFAs failing to comply with this Standard Condition 1 may be considered to be in breach of... Read more

Services

ABS review

A one-off review of an Adviser Business Statement to ensure it meets requirements and adequately describes the adviser business. Having a compliant and up to date ABS is essential for all AFAs and failure to do so is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct. This review includes reviewing the ABS, relating it to how the adviser operates and suggesting modifications.... Read more

Advice documents falling short of requirements

The latest quarterly review of advice documents conducted by Strategi reveals that many firms and financial advisers are producing advice documents that do not meet the New Zealand Certificate in Financial Services Level 5 requirements. Mortgage advisers, investment advisers, personal insurance advisers, and many QFEs are all in the same boat when it comes to issues with advice documents. Many... Read more

Adviser annual confirmation

In addition to being registered on the Financial Service Providers Register, advisers (whether RFAs or AFAs) are also required to maintain their registration at all times during which they provide a financial service. Section 28 of the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008 requires that in order to maintain registration, each registered financial service... Read more

Publications & resources

Adviser Business Statement template

An Adviser Business Statement (ABS) template customised to a typical financial planning practice. Use this template and accompanying guidance note to produce your own tailored solution. There is no prescribed length for the ABS. However, the Financial Markets Authority (the regulator) is keen to see it in the vicinity of 7-15 pages, but this will depend on how detailed an adviser... Read more

AFA Information Return

All AFAs need to have their AFA Information Return completed and lodged with FMA by 30 September every year. This is something that cannot be ignored. The Information Return consists of a series of questions about AFAs and their business. What is the Information Return? It is an online questionnaire each AFA is required to complete and submit to FMA. The Information Return gathers factual... Read more

Publications & resources

AFA primary disclosure statement template

Package includes a disclosure statement guidance note, a sample completed disclosure statement, plus a template for you to customise a disclosure statement to meet your specific situation. This package will save you hours of work and help avoid a regulatory breach. Read more

Publications & resources

AFA secondary disclosure statement template

For AFAs. Package includes a disclosure statement guidance note, a sample completed disclosure statement, plus a template for you to customise a disclosure statement to meet your specific situation. This solution will save you hours of work and help avoid a regulatory breach. Read more

Courses

AML/CFT Sector Risk Assessment 2017

Aim: To: Identify and communicate the money laundering/terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks faced by reporting entities (REs) in the nine sectors supervised by the FMA; and Inform those reporting entities, of the key changes to the risk ratings between the sector risk assessment (SRA) undertaken by the FMA in 2011 and 2017. Outcome: Completing the module may help REs to:... Read more

Financial Advice Strand: Advice process manual cover

Assessment for Financial Advice Strand: Advice process

Strategi Institute offers advisers three options to complete Financial Advice Strand: Advice process. Assessment is via submission of a portfolio of evidence (submitted online) that is the subject of a competency interview/discussion between an adviser and an assessor. Once the portfolio of evidence and accompanying attestations are submitted, Strategi Institute will review and... Read more

Building QFE compliance processes

Good governance is about assessing risk, mitigating those risks and guiding a business to become financially successful. Directors and senior managers of all businesses carry a degree of personal risk with their roles. That risk level is increased if the business is a QFE (qualifying financial entity) as in addition to all the normal laws applicable to doing business, there is the multitude of... Read more

Services

Business in a Box: an integrated solution for financial advice businesses

Business in a Box (BIB) is a suite of tools to help build and ensure the efficiency of a financial advice business. It is a flexible solution, scaleable to business size. All tools work together to provide a fully integrated solution, or alternatively a ‘pick-and-mix’ approach can be taken where businesses simply select the tools they need. The BIB toolbox The BIB suite of tools is... Read more

Publications & resources

Business Operations Manual

For busy advisers the construction of a company Business Operations Manual can be a daunting task. Strategi's Business Operations Manual template can take the guesswork out of what information this document should contain. It includes all the sections you need to consider, providing a great starting point and allowing customisation of the contents to your business. Read more

Choose your pathway for Financial Advice Strand: Advice process

The Financial Advice Strand: Advice process is arguably the most demanding of all of the Strands. Assessment is via submission of a portfolio of evidence submitted online that is the subject of a competency interview/discussion between an adviser and an assessor. Strategi Institute offers three options for an adviser to complete Financial Advice Strand: Advice... Read more

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