Accountants need to start talking about SMSF
Accountants are not having the necessary conversations on what is going to happen to their ability to give advice on self-managed super funds (SMSF) after July 2016, an accountant believes.
William Buck director Fausto Pastro said he is concerned that a lot of his colleagues just are not thinking about what is going to happen after the end date for accountants’ exemption for recommending SMSFs, before they will need an Australian financial services licence (AFSL) to do so.
He said they should be asking themselves a number of questions.
“How relevant is it to maintain their ability to provide advice in relation to SMSFs? How important is this to their clients?
“Is it sufficient that provide only strategy advice after July 2016? How appropriate is it for them to be able to provide more general or more holistic advice in relation to more detail strategies?” Pastro asked.
He added accountants should think about advice to retail clients on credit, housing loans, and restructure of personal debts.
He also lamented accountants with an AFSL are focusing too much on client outcome rather than compliance with the law.
“Compliance with the letter of the law, compliance with their compliance plan is far more important in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission than having a good outcome for their clients.
“It requires a paradigm shift and a behavioural shift for accountants. We’re judged by our capacity to comply with the law, not our capacity to deliver an excellent outcome,” he said.
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