Meanwhile, accountants strengthen their grip

Money Management’s inaugural Top 100 dealer survey has proved what many in the industry have long suspected — that accountants are fast gaining a foothold in the industry.

Money Management’s inaugural Top 100 dealer survey has proved what many in the industry have long suspected — that accountants are fast gaining a foothold in the industry.

With one out of five financial planners belonging to an accounting-based planning group and four of the top 20 dealer groups also being accounting-based, account-ants are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the industry. This is a fact not lost on Kylie Lambert, deputy managing director of Count Wealth Accountants, top of the accounting-based dealer groups and ranked at number two in the overall re-sults.

“Accountants should be the dominant force in the industry, because of how highly regarded they are,” she says.

After 19 years in the business and 1000 planners on its books, Lambert says Count Wealth Accountants is only now beginning to hit its stride. “I think we have a fan-tastic future. We feel as though we’ve just begun. We’re really heartened that the Society of CPAs and the Institute of Chartered Accountants have introduced their own planning specialisations. Accountants are en masse realising this is an industry they should be in.”

Lambert believes part of the reason accountants are becoming so popular with cli-ents is their professionalism. “Accountants are technically the most proficient in the industry and the most hopeless sales people.”

Wes McMaster is the chief executive officer of Austplanners, which is the holding company of Bleakleys, positioned eight in the survey, and second among the ac-counting-based dealer groups. He says the results of the survey highlight the growing number of accountants moving away from traditional tax-based work to join the growing financial planning industry.

“This is indicative of the accounting industry moving more and more towards de-livering financial planning services. Traditional compliance work has contracted and financial planning is a natural extension of these services,” he says.

Accountants are increasingly becoming aware that their clients are also seeking external advice about their full financial affairs, and are moving into planning to offer them a one-stop-shop of services.

Bleakleys currently has 298 planners on board. And McMaster says Bleakleys’ success, like that of Count’s, has been to recognise this growing market and target it effectively. “I think you’ll find we’re up amongst the larger firms because we very clearly positioned ourselves as a dealer of choice for accountants.”

The impending CLERP 6 legislation means that accountants will soon be unable to offer their clients incidental advice. This has also served as an added impetus for accountants to move into planning, Lambert says.

Interestingly enough, two of the top six ranked accounting-based groups started off as breakaways from larger dealers. Lifespan Financial Planning, with 179 advisers making it the fifth largest among accountants, was an offshoot of Count Wealth Accountants. Lifespan flew the Count coup in 1994.

The other breakaway group in the survey is Professional Investment Services, who split from Advisor Investment Services in 1996. Since then, it has enjoyed a mete-oric expansion, with planner numbers doubling that of its old parent. Professional Investment Services has, in its three years in operation, amassed 239 planners, ranking it fourth largest among the accounting-based groups, with an overall rank-ing of 14 in the survey. Advisor Investment Services, ranked 29 in the overall sur-vey, are the sixth largest accounting-based group.

Whether or not accountants will continue making inroads into financial planning will be interesting to see. Certainly, both accounting bodies think the trend will continue. The Australian Society of CPAs (who introduced their own planning designation in April) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants (who recently in-troduced their own specialisation in financial planning at a conference in Fiji ear-lier this month) are both claiming they have been overwhelmed by interest from members. And why not? Financial planning is a growing industry, and a lucrative one to boot.

And, on the results of this survey, accountants are well and truly in the race to grab their share of the market.