Only 28% of New Zealanders sought financial advice in the past year
New Zealand advice firms may be held back less by client demand than by their own capacity to deliver, argues Ryan Edwards (pictured), managing director of The Adviser Platform (TAP), in a recent commentary. TAP began as an aggregator and now provides CRM, compliance, and support services to advice businesses.
Edwards cited Financial Markets Authority (FMA) research showing that just 28% of New Zealanders accessed financial advice in the previous 12 months, which leaves considerable room for growth. But he questioned whether firms could absorb a sudden rise in demand. He wrote: “For many advice businesses, the constraint isn’t demand. It’s capacity.”
Regulator flags over-cautious advice
The regulator has also pointed to process as part of the problem. The FMA’s Access to Financial Advice Review found that many providers are unsure how to tailor the scope of advice. As a result, advisers sometimes go further than a client’s needs require, making advice harder for consumers to access.
Edwards argued that hiring, while sometimes necessary, should not be the default fix. He urged firms to first look at how work moves through the business. That means checking whether roles are clear, processes are consistent, data is entered only once, and governance checks are built into workflows rather than added at the end.
He describes the way people, processes, technology, data, and governance fit together as “practice architecture”. He wrote: “A new CRM won’t fix a broken process.”
Mapping the friction
Edwards wrote that newer channels such as targeted advice, digital and hybrid models, and KiwiSaver conversations all generate extra operational work. A routine client request can pass through a CRM system, spreadsheets, email, providers, and compliance checks before returning to the adviser. Each step creates scope for double handling, follow-up, and delay.
He acknowledged that some administration and compliance work is unavoidable. The real issue, he argued, is whether skilled staff are “using judgement or moving information around”.
His recommended starting point is a single, common client journey. Firms should count the handoffs and separate tasks that need professional judgement from those that could be simplified or automated. Then they should fix one problem at a time. Repeated over time, he argued, this builds the capacity to serve more clients, broaden the services on offer, or take on work that was previously uneconomic.
Where technology fits
TAP has been using artificial intelligence (AI) agents for routine processes such as policy anniversaries and arrears management. It has also partnered with Hive to support KiwiSaver and wealth conversations with clients. Edwards wrote that the aim is not to replace advisers but to spare them from tracking every routine job.
The regulator has made a similar point. FMA chief executive Samantha Barrass told the Financial Advice New Zealand conference in March 2026 that providers had shown strong interest in using technology, including AI. She said it could automate time-consuming parts of the advice process and leave advisers more time for the conversations clients value.
For Edwards, the test for any new system, automation, or AI tool is straightforward: what work it removes, and what that frees the business to do instead.
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