How to check a financial adviser is licensed in New Zealand
Search the Financial Service Providers Register at fsp-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz. It is free and public. Look for the firm's FSP number, the services it is registered for, and its dispute resolution scheme. These are the same checks we will run on any firm before we introduce anybody to it.
Checked against its sources on 2026-09-16
Written by Life Insurance NZ. No personal byline: the organisation is the author.Why this check exists
Anyone giving you regulated financial advice about insurance has to be licensed or working under somebody who is, and it is not rude to check. The register is public precisely so that you can.
The steps
- Go to the Financial Service Providers Register and search the firm's name, or its FSP number if you have one.
- Check the entity name matches the business you are actually dealing with. Trading names differ from registered names constantly, and an adviser should be able to tell you which entity they work under.
- Check which financial services the entity is registered for.
- Check the dispute resolution scheme recorded against it. That is who you complain to if something goes wrong, and it is not the same body as the one you complain to about us.
- Ask the adviser directly for their disclosure information. A financial advice provider has to make certain information publicly available, including its licence status, the products it advises on, its fees, its conflicts of interest and its commissions.
The four approved dispute resolution schemes
“There are 4 schemes approved by Consumer Protection to provide financial dispute resolution services. They are: Banking Ombudsman (BOS) · Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO) · Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL) — a Financial Ombudsman Service · Financial Dispute Resolution Service (FDR)”
— Financial Service Providers Register help centre, “Choosing a scheme”
The same page notes that providers offering a service to retail clients must belong to an approved scheme. Note that these schemes are approved by Consumer Protection, part of MBIE — not by the Financial Markets Authority, which is a different body with a different role.
What to ask on the first call
- Which insurers do you advise on, and is that all of them or a panel?
- How are you paid — commission from the insurer, a fee from me, or both — and how much?
- Were you paid anything for the introduction that brought me to you? (If you came through this site, the answer is yes, and it is on our disclosure page.)
- What is the scope of the advice you are giving me, and what is outside it?
- Who do I complain to, and which scheme are you a member of?
Questions
Is the register free to search?
Yes. The Financial Service Providers Register is public and free, and no account is needed.
What if the firm is not on the register?
Ask them which entity they give advice under, because advisers often work under a licensed provider whose name differs from the one on the business card. If nobody can give you a registered entity, that is worth taking seriously.
Does the FMA keep a separate list?
The Financial Markets Authority licenses financial advice providers and publishes information about the regime. We have not quoted or linked any FMA page on this site, for an unusual reason: fma.govt.nz refuses automated requests, so we could not read it to check what it says. We would rather say that than cite a page we have not read.
Sources
- Financial Service Providers Register
- Financial Service Providers Register, Choosing a dispute resolution scheme
- Financial Markets Conduct Regulations 2014, Schedule 21A
Read on 2026-09-16. If a source and this page disagree, the source is right.
Related
Not financial advice. We are not financial advisers and we give no advice. Introductions are not open yet: we have no referral agreement in place, so we are not passing anybody's details to anyone. The page below tells you how to find and check a licensed adviser yourself. Read the disclosure.