CA ANZ appoints financial advice leader

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) has appointed a financial advice leader who joins following 20 years at CPA Australia.

Michael Davison has over 20 years of experience in financial services and superannuation, primarily at CPA Australia where he worked in a variety of roles including senior manager for advocacy and retirement policy and senior policy adviser for superannuation.

The organisation, which is part of the Joint Associations Working Group, flagged the need for financial advice and its importance to Australian consumers, as well as upcoming changes posed by the Quality of Advice Review.

The role will help advocate for CA ANZ’s members to be well-placed to meet the large volume of unmet advice needs via reforms in the Quality of Advice Review. 

Simon Grant, group executive for advocacy and international development at CA ANZ, said: “Over many years, CA ANZ enjoyed a great collaborative working relationship with Michael while he was at CPA Australia. Michael’s wealth of experience across a number of policy areas will be invaluable for our advocacy efforts, particularly in superannuation and financial services. He’s a great addition to our advocacy team.”

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Davison said: “Having spent many years collaborating with the CA ANZ team, it is a pleasure to now join them as they lead the accounting profession’s advocacy for better financial advice and retirement outcomes for all Australians.

“The need for financial advice is increasingly important to Australians, however, access to quality, well-qualified and knowledgeable advisers is very difficult, if not impossible, for the average person.” 

Accountants were previously suggested as a solution to the adviser shortage as they already possess the relevant technical knowledge.

Speaking earlier this year, Peter Burgess, chief executive of the SMSF Association, said: “We think they can play an important, bigger role in giving advice to clients. If we are serious about bridging this gap, then we need to find a way to get qualified accountants back in the game and be able to give some form of personal advice without necessarily being licensed, although they need to hold the relevant qualifications. 

“This would make it easier to get licensed, but it won’t solve the problem because they have problems with the professional year (PY). For an accountant to undertake the PY is very difficult as they have to be supervised by a licensed adviser, and if they aren’t working at a licensed advice firm, then that is very difficult.”