CPA releases dealer directory for accountants

Peak accountancy bodyCPA Australiahas launched an FSR Licence Holder Directory in a bid to smooth the path to involvement in financial planning for its members.

The directory contains a profiling tool to assist accounting practices to determine the type of financial planning services they would like to offer, a guide on matching licence holders to these requirements, and a directory of licence holders.

While the directory currently lists 33 groups, CPA Australia plans to release several updated editions in the first year which will include other groups who did not register before the cut-off for the first edition, with the next version expected to be released in February 2004. The directory is also accessible through the CPA Australia website.

CPA Australia financial planning manager Kath Bowler says a huge display of interest from its member base around financial planning, including 50 phone calls a month from members interested in moving into this area, indicated a need for support by the association.

Currently 3,200 of CPA’s 100,000 members are licence holders or authorised representatives, with a further 6,000 members expressing an interest in financial planning.

The groups in the licence holder directory are not awarded any ranking, as the association felt that it could not identify the features and structures that would be a perfect fit for all accountancy practices, according to Bowler.

“Different practices will want and need different levels of support and there will be different cost levels to correspond to that,” Bowler says.

Bowler stresses that the guide is only an “interpretation by CPA on what the important issues are and what members should be looking for”, and was designed to give the association’s members an idea of what to expect from large dealer groups or boutique licence holders.