Green, the owner and managing director of AdviceHQ, says level five of the New Zealand Certificate in Financial Services is a good step in the right direction, but it would be great if one day mortgage advising became a profession.
For that to happen, it would need mortgage advisers to be degree qualified and do some sort of post graduate study, he says.
“I think if it is to be called a profession we need to go down that track.”
Wellington-based financial planner and mortgage adviser Craig Pope of Craig Pope Financial says advisers need to upskill themselves.
He has been working through the investment strand paper to add KiwiSaver to the list of services his business offers. He says it is, however, easier said than done.
“Running a mortgage business and trying to find the time to finish the investment strand is difficult.
“I take my hat off to advisers that manage to combine insurance and mortgages work because they are both quite complex.
“To be honest, I think advisers are better off being really good at what they do, be it mortgages for first time buyers or investors and have really good mechanisms and referral partners that can help clients with insurance or KiwiSaver,” he says.
Pope thinks advisers can be doing more hand on servicing for clients. “Budgeting and money planning and advice and a broad understanding of insurance and KiwiSaver.”
Too much red tape
Green says one big issue facing mortgage advisers is the amount of red tape in the industry, for example the CCCFA legislation, which doesn’t represent the conversations that brokers have with clients.
“The CCCFA doesn't feel too generous, even though it has been relaxed,” he says.
Green believes the legislation is aimed at the lowest common denominator – a truck loan. “The sort of rules that should apply to a truck loan shouldn't really apply to a mortgage.”
He says this is demonstrated in the delinquency and arrears rates between truck loans and mortgages. The difference is vast, Green says, and there's no mad rush of mortgagee sales or anything like that.
“When the CCCFA legislation was introduced, there wasn't actually a need for it in the mortgage space, perhaps in the truck loan space, and perhaps special lending. There weren’t any issues with mortgages, particularly with the controls the RBNZ and the FMA have in place.
“Was there a need for the CCCFA legislation for mortgage lending? I don't think so. It's just more red tape, to be honest. It's completely unnecessary.”
