Big accounting firms embrace financial planning

The overwhelming majority of Australia’s larger accounting firms have embraced financial planning, according to research byBusiness Review Weekly.

Only one in 10 of the 100 biggest accountancy firms plan to stay out of financial planning, while nearly half describe their involvement in financial planning as “strong”.

Of the top 100 accounting firms surveyed by BRW, 48 per cent are strongly involved in financial planning, 31 per cent are marginally involved while 11 per cent are considering entering the financial advice business.

One of the reasons given for the rush into financial planning is its ability to turn low fee paying tax return clients into more profitable financial planning clients. About 45 per cent of firms say they will upgrade their clients by offering financial planning services.

The publication of the Top 100 survey comes only weeks after the exit of one of the biggest accounting firms from financial planning, when Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu offloaded its financial planning outfit to consolidator group Stockford for $7.5 million.

Deloitte Financial Services had $630 million under advice at the time of the sale, bringing Stockford’s total funds under advice to $2.8 billion. Stockford came in at number 56 on the Top 100 Accountants survey, but is set to move rapidly up the ranks in the next year. The group has forecast fees to reach $80 million by the end of the current financial year, which would make it the biggest accounting firm outside of the so-called “Big Five”.