At Trail, we have the tools available to support you in the upcoming FMA Regulatory Returns.
As Regulatory Returns reporting is new in our industry, please be aware this article may contain inconsistencies in the released reporting requirements as these could be updated over time. Please double check the FMA's guidelines when completing this report - do not use this article alone to generate your report. This is meant to be a helpful guide rather than a rulebook 👍
The goal of this article is to help you complete your Regulatory Returns report in a timely fashion, highlighting the questions that Trail can help you out with 😄
In this article you will learn:
What is the Regulatory Returns report?
The Regulatory Return sections:
What is the Regulatory Returns report?
All licensed FAPs are required to complete and submit an annual regulatory return. The regulatory return is a series of questions to obtain an up-to-date understanding of the nature, size and complexity of your financial advice provider service.
Licensees will be required to complete an annual regulatory return for the 12-month period ending 30 June and submit it to the FMA by 30 September. The FMA will notify all licensees when it is time to complete and submit the regulatory return.
If you would like to familiarise yourself with questions for the FAP regulatory returns you can read them at the links below. These documents are for information only; the actual regulatory returns data must be submitted through the FMA Online Services portal.
The above information is publicly available HERE 👍
Business and Infrastructure
Many of the questions in this section revolve around the structure of your business. However, many of them also discuss the knowledge and skill of the advisers involved.
For our KAN members, this is a good opportunity to review your Registers as this will contain your professional development records in addition to business processes.
Another useful tool available for all Trail members is the Users & Teams page, which can be accessed by any Trail user with business admin enabled.
Licensed Activities
This large section focuses on your client numbers, types of regulated financial advice, and financial advice products.
Question 6 (Client numbers)
How many NZ retail and wholesale clients does [FAP NAME] have at the end of the return period? An estimate is sufficient (+/- 5%)
For this question, you may utilise Profile Tags to mark profiles as Retail or Wholesale. Click HERE for a full tutorial on how to complete the tagging 👍
Then use Advanced Filtering to generate the report on this!
Question 8A (Financial advice products)
What types of financial advice products have [FAP NAME] (or any person engaged by [FAP NAME]) provided regulated financial advice to its retail clients during the return period? Select all that apply.
This question is best answered by visiting your Products Dashboard. You can export this information or use Trail's Advanced Filter to further narrow down your reports, based on your business. Understanding your Product Dashboard
Question 8C (Financial advice products)
What proportion of [FAP NAME]’s retail clients who received regulated financial advice resulted in replacement business during the return period? An estimate is sufficient (+/- 5%)
You may use Trail's Advanced Filter to return a result of all insurance products that contain at least one cover item that has been replaced.
As an additional criteria, you may also include the review period to sort by cover items that were marked as replaced between a certain timeframe:
Question 8D (Financial advice products) - How many of [FAP NAME]’s retail clients received regulated financial advice which resulted in them switching to a different KiwiSaver provider during the return period.
The feature to complete this is coming soon!
Question 12A (Financial advice products) - How many NZ retail clients do you estimate have received regulated financial advice during return period as part of [FAP NAME]’s digital advice facility?
You may utilise Profile Tags previously set up to generate a report on this criteria.
This question can be answered by completing the same process you went through in Question 6 👍
Question 12B (Financial advice products) - Select which option best reflects the processes that [FAP NAME] has in place to monitor and maintain its digital advice facility during the return period.
As a KAN member, you will have access to an area in your Registers for Key Company Documents that can aid with this question.
Question 13 (Financial advice products) - Select which option best reflects the [FAP NAME]’s processes and controls for addressing the needs of retail clients in vulnerable circumstances during the return period.
Trail allows you to mark a client as vulnerable and generate reports on this using the Advanced Filter. You may review best practice on vulnerable clients HERE 👍
Using the Advanced Filter, you may create a report on vulnerable clients using the following criteria:
Complaints
The complaints process in Trail has been built to follow a thorough process from start to finish. This ensures all parties' information is captured accurately.
All Trail environments have access to the compliance modules. As a Trail user, you may visit each of your client profiles and view the Profile Timeline to see any past closed complaints for review.
KAN enabled Trail environments gain access to the Complaints register, which displays All complaints, Open complaints, or Closed Complaints. You may also download a report on your complaints if you prefer to view your information in that method.
Outsourcing
This section discusses which processes of your business are outsourced to other providers. If you are a KAN member, the majority of this information will be available under your Operational Infrastructure in your Registers, seen here:
Business Continuity and Tech Systems
For our KAN members, your BCP may be available in your Key Company Documents, under your Registers.
For all Trail users, we highlight Trail's Security Systems and Privacy Policy here, which may be used in tandems with your own technology reports.
Declaration & Confirmation
This section verifies that what you have provided is true and correct 😃