Accountants join united financial advice policy front
The Albanese Government is facing a united front of advice and accounting groups demanding the regulatory changes necessary to increase the availability and affordability of financial advice.
The unity of views on the problems being created by the shortage of financial advisers has been driven home by major accounting group, CPA Australia, which has cited it as a real risk to the Government’s retirement incomes objections.
The advice and accounting bodies have been competing to gain the ear of the new Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Daniel Mulino, but their messaging to him has been consistent.
CPA Australia lead, Richard Webb said the mass exodus of financial advisers is exposing millions of Australians on the cusp of retirement to making high-risk investment decisions.
He said that unless urgent action is taken to reverse the growing shortage of advisers, too many Australians will start their retirements without receiving the professional advice they need to ensure they have secure and reliable retirement incomes.
Webb said a mountain of red tape has been a key contributor to financial advisers quitting the profession leaving numbers of the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) at nearly half those which existed in 2019.
“More than 2.5 million Australians will retire in the next decade – and many will be shocked to discover there are fewer than 15,300 professional financial advisers to assist them with some of the biggest decisions of their lives,” Webb said.
“With the increasing propensity of retirees to leave their super funds and seek higher investment returns through risky investments, expert financial advice is needed now more than ever.”
CPA Australia urges the federal government to prioritise a review of the regulations and costs forcing advisers out of the profession, as well as deterring new entrants.
This includes finalising:
- The post-implementation review of the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort
- Updated financial advice education standards
- Changes to the financial advice best interest duty
- Clarifying the role of the new class of adviser
“The federal government must take action to help alleviate the burden of regulation and costs faced by advisers before the shortage becomes an irreversible crisis.”
The CPA’s concerns came at the same time as an open letter to Mulino from Association of Independent Financial Professionals, Peter Johnston urging the new minister to grant advisers a greater voice at the policy table in circumstances where “bureaucrats and politicians have traditionally ignored the advice profession”.
“We think it is now time to include Advice practitioners in this process, the other option has clearly not worked,” Johnston’s open letter said.
“We suggest a representative from the 4 Advice focussed Associations are on a committee with ASIC and Treasury to decide policy – FAAA, AIOFP, SMSFA and Stockbrokers & Advisers. We think it makes sense that policy practicality and relevancy needs to be tested before market release. “
The letter also expressed concern with “the distinct possibility of many thousands of Financial Advisers leaving the industry by 1/1/2026 due to the education requirements not being met and the CSLR levy ramifications”.
Someone help me as I’m still struggling. We still have January 2026 as an execution date for some experienced advisers, we have a national shortage of advisers but we are pushing to allow backpackers as advisers into Union funds???
What is happening to this country?? And who put the idiots in charge?
There is no execution date for most experienced advisers, due to the “experience pathway”.
The number of significantly experienced advisers who don’t meet the experience pathway, and have also chosen not to meet the education requirements, is very small. There will be no sudden drop off in adviser numbers on 1 Jan 2026. There will just be a steady continuation of ongoing exits with insufficient replacements, due to the burden of bad regulation.
I don’t disagree in principle but the devil is in the details. Many accountants if provided the opportunity will use new rules to move retail and industry funds into SMSF’s. This is without regard to insurance, owning assets of more than a bank account that’s been there for years, having the training and the tools to look at longevity risk management and other factors. But the biggest miss that will common to almost all accountants is the time to properly counsel clients. Planners have vastly fewer clients than accountants as much more time is required per client for planning services than accounting. This is simply as a result of the differing aspects of these services. Accountants are notoriously short of time. A fully loaded planner will have about 110 clients, and even this is red lining. Most accounts have 250-500 accounting clients, where will they fit in the planning needs appropriately? I can’t see a cogent argument where an accountant will have anywhere near the time to properly look after clients and manage the holistic aspects of their lives in a professional manner.
Doing a contribution or starting a pension whilst important is but a fraction of what is required to do a good job.
I have to take issue with this statement.
“ “More than 2.5 million Australians will retire in the next decade – and many will be shocked to discover there are fewer than 15,300 professional financial advisers to assist them with some of the biggest decisions of their lives,”
How many of these have existing relationships. At the high end, research suggests 1 in 4. So 1.9 million need an adviser. If adviser practices are 90% ‘full’ that means there is scope to pick up maybe 12 clients per adviser. So around 180,000 of these retirees may be able to access advice.
So, the 1.7 million remaining retirees may find there are 10 to 20 net new advisers to provide them with financial advice. @Politicians…do you NOW see the problem.
You didn’t finish your sentence “…do you now see the the problem….-> that you created and are 100% responsible for.”
100% my friend! Good to see you’re still on here! I’ve been retired 18 months!