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Accountants who have completed the requirement of gaining their Limited Australian Financial Services Licence are struggling to integrate SMSF services effectively.
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Accountants still ‘head under covers’ with SMSF advice
03 March 2017
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8 minute read
Accordius executive director Geoff Greetham told Accountants Daily that there is a bit of a “head under the covers” mentality in the accounting industry when it comes to getting licenced to provide SMSF advice.
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“While accountants are required to be licenced, even though they know many haven't actually got the licence,” Mr Greetham said.
“Those that are licenced are still a little bit unsure about how they will integrate that in to their own service offering.”
Mr Greetham said that because the licence is limited, there is still a lot of confusion over how to best integrate SMSF advice into their usual service offering.
“Obviously the limited licence only lets you provide certain things up to a particular point, and you'll still require someone else to work with the accountant to provide a more fulsome service,” Mr Greetham said.
“It’s intriguing that even those ones that have it are still not quite sure how they'll approach the market.”
While there is still a lot to work out, Mr Greetham said he believes the new licencing requirements are positive and even out the playing field between accountants and financial planners.
“It’s a little bit of a tit for tat, being that financial advisers have to become licenced tax advisors, so the other side of the coin is accountants should have to be licenced to provide self-managed superfund advice,” he said.
“I do think it will be a good thing down the track, and I think anything raising the standards of the industry is good, but I still think it's got a way to work out how financial planners are going to work with accountants.”
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