The National Tax & Accountants' Association (NTAA) has hit back at comments made by the FPA chief Mark Rantall, claiming that Rantall is dismissive of its newly launched association.

This week, the NTAA established a financial planning association representing tax agents and accountants, including self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs).

Yesterday, Rantall said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald that the new association was of little consequence and represents no threat to the FPA.

"Since the NTAA's clients represent the majority of the 426,000 SMSFs in Australia, Mr Rantall's critical comments are hard to understand," NTAA senior taxation manager Andrew Gardiner said.

"It's not surprising that the FPA are dismissive of a new financial planners' association. They have dominated the market for too long and have become used to dictating to people wishing to establish SMSFs."

About 800 members of the NTAA attended a seminar in Sydney yesterday, pledging support for the association, a statement from the NTAA said.

The NTAA Financial Planners' Association will help tax agents and accountants to become qualified financial planners and will help them maintain their financial planning qualifications.

"Many of our members at our Sydney seminar have indicated that they will need to re-think their business and move into the space which the new association has created. Either that, or they risk losing their business," Gardiner said.

In the same interview, Rantall said there was a big difference between a professional association and an industry association, saying "we're a professional association".

"The FPA claim they are a professional association. To me, that seems strange, coming from a body that merely oversees financial planners, more than 80 per cent of whom are tied to large financial institutions," he said.