New Zealand's FMA Cancels FAP License of Wisdom House Investment Partners Limited

The New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority (FMA) today announced that it has cancelled the transitional financial advice provider (FAP) licence of Wisdom House Investment Partners Limited for its sole financial adviser engaged in serious misconduct at his previous employer.

According to the announcement, Wisdom House is solely operated by Mr Yuen Pok (Paul) Loo. He established the business after his contract was terminated by Wellington-based financial services firm FoxPlan Ltd, which was censured by the FMA in July 2021 because, among other breaches, one of its nominated representatives provided services he was not permitted to give. That nominated representative was Mr Loo.

In addition, Mr Loo told his clients that he was an authorised financial adviser when he was not, and invoicing clients for advice using altered FoxPlan invoices so that FoxPlan's clients would pay him directly – resulting in him misappropriating $36,029.98 from FoxPlan between 4 July 2018 and 4 November 2020. further, Mr Loo wrote investment plans for clients that had not been approved or signed off by the firm.

"Trust in the financial advice sector is imperative and any misconduct that undermines that must be held to account. A licence cancellation is a strong regulatory response and we decided it was necessary in this case to send a strong message of deterrence,"James Greig, FMA Director of Supervision, said.

Wisdom House's licence was cancelled on 10 December 2021. This is the first time the FMA has cancelled a financial advice provider licence. Mr Loo is informing his clients and affiliated product providers of the licence cancellation.

Last week, FMA has published its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Sector Risk Assessment 2021, which updates the regulator's 2017 version​.