Financial planners should take advantage of the opportunities posed by the changes in licensing regime following the removal of the accountants' exemption, a panel of self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) executives said.
Although there is uncertainty surrounding what will replace the accountants' exemption, financial planners should be optimistic of the opportunities it will give to their business, SMSF Advice national development manager Kath Bowler said.
"It's really about licensing the advice space and there are lots of opportunities for both accountants and planners to come out of these changes in licensing," Bowler told delegates as part of a panel session at the 2012 Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals' Association SMSF National Conference in Sydney yesterday.
"For the planners, I actually see there to be more opportunities than challenges because I think the registration [.] sort of legitimises the advice that financial planners have already been giving and just allows them to give that advice in a licensing environment."
MLC national manager of accountant solutions Nick Hilton said financial planners can benefit from the changes by enhancing their relationship with accountants.
"There is opportunity out of this change for accountants and financial planners to work a little bit closer together with a little bit more of a mutual understanding around what's involved in the advice process," he said.
Count Financial senior executive of advice Dean Bornor said the group also believed there was an opportunity for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia-owned group to work more closely with the accounting side of its practices.
"So then we can talk to that accounting side and say, 'Well, how can we help you meet these obligations that are going to be brought down upon us? How can we encourage a greater consolidation with planners generally within the network at the moment? And, how can we use both of those support mechanisms to provide better advice to clients?'" Bornor said.
However, there needs to be some modelling to ensure that both financial planners and accountants are clear about their own roles, Bowler said.
"There is overlap between what financial planners and accountants can do," she said.
"I think there should be that discussion between the planner and accountant as to where you want the line to go. It's going to be really important if you want that relationship to work, to agree on who will do what because there is going to be situations where both of you can do the same thing."
To view video coverage of the 2012 SPAA SMSF National Conference, please visit InvestorDaily's video page.
