Accountants drag feet on licensing
Accountants remain largely undecided about the degree to which they will make use of the new licensing regime replacing the accountants' exemption, according to the results of a survey conducted by Money Management at the recent SMSF Association conference in Melbourne.
The survey, sponsored by Australian Unity Personal Financial Services, has revealed that only around a quarter of accountant respondents had decided that they would use the new licensing regime but, of those, most believed they would want to be licensed sufficient to provide holistic advice.
The survey asked accountants whether they intended utilising the new licensing regime, with only 24.2 per cent of respondents indicating they intended doing so.
However 41.4 per cent said they would be doing so on the basis of providing holistic and specific financial advice while 30 per cent said they would be seeking to do so under a limited license allowing them to provide self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) and class advice.
The survey suggests that financial planning dealer groups still have much to gain from the new licensing regime with most accountants acknowledging that their preferred approach is to partner with a licensee under a dealer group model.
Asked whether they would consider partnering with a licensee to benefit from services such as compliance, marketing, software, technical support and practice development, 37.1 per cent of respondents answered yes, with 35.7 answering no.
The Accountants Exemption will expire on 30 June, next year.
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