Accountants seek right to deliver ‘strategic’ advice

Accountants want to be able to provide financial advice but have told Treasury they do not want to compete with financial advisers in providing product and investment advice.

Rather, the Institute of Financial Professionals Australia (IFPA) says its members want to provide strategic and structural superannuation advice to their clients relating to their tax affairs.

At the same time, the IFPA has backed financial advisers being granted secure, read-only access to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) tax portal.

IFPA has used its pre-Budget submission to argue that if banks, superannuation funds and insurance companies are going to be allowed to provide advice to members, “accountants have the expertise and are just as competent as other providers to give advice to their clients”.

“To clarify, we are not requesting an exemption for accountants to offer financial product advice in relation to the underlying assets within a superannuation fund,” it said. “Providing product and investment advice remains the responsibility of a licensed relevant provider.”

“Rather, our members want to provide strategic and structural superannuation advice to their clients relating to their tax affairs. Examples of common superannuation related advice services include the ability to make contributions, commence a pension, establish and assist with operation of an SMSF, winding up an SMSF,” the submission said.

“If accountants are granted an exemption to provide strategic and structural advice, we believe financial advisers should also have the same exemption in those situations,” it said. “In other words, if this type of advice is not classified as ‘financial product advice’, then both accountants and financial advisers should follow the same rules regarding the need for a statement of advice (SOA) or record of advice (ROA).”

“It is paradoxical that accountants cannot provide such simple superannuation advice particularly when accountants have access to the tax agent portal and can see their client’s total superannuation balance, their available contribution cap space, contributions made by/for them through single touch payroll etc

“On the flipside, financial advisers who are licensed to provide this advice do not have access to their client’s information on the portal unless they are registered tax agents.

The submission went on to state that financial advises play a crucial role in developing tax-efficient strategies that help clients maximise their financial position, while remaining compliant.