Why? Because apparently the period between Friday
17 February 2012 and Saturday 23 June 2012 was all of two weeks. Well, at least according to the calendar Financial Services and Superannuation Minister Bill Shorten is using it is.
Back on that famous Friday in February the Minister declared we’d have an announcement on the accountants’ exemption in two weeks. Well the announcement was finally made a few Saturday’s ago.
And that’s not the only critical note one can level about the timing of the announcement. For such an important issue why was it made on a Saturday?
Could it be Shorten is employing the Basil Fawlty theory of trying his best not to mention the war, considering his tardiness in relation to the announcement?
That said, we should all be thankful the announcement has finally been made and the new requirements seem to be reasonable, and include most of the elements the accounting fraternity wanted.
In addition, the time frame imposed for the implementation of the new regime, between 1 July 2013 and 1 July 2016, also seems to be fair, hopefully ensuring the new rules will be put into place the right way.
But we’re not quite out of the woods yet as far as this chapter of the SMSF advice industry goes.
You see, we have been told one of the redeeming qualities of the new licensing arrangements is it will enable accountants and advisers alike to deliver “more strategic and low-cost forms of financial advice”.
More strategic perhaps, seeing accountants will now be able to provide broader superannuation advice as well as class of product advice on things like insurance and simple managed investment schemes.
But the jury is still out on the potential cost effectiveness of this advice seeing that the new rules will require accountants to acquire an Australian financial services licence (AFSL), albeit a limited one.
In its most recent budget, the federal government decided to apply a few fiscal levers to the financial services sector in order to make the implementation of the Future of Financial Advice reforms more economically palatable.
To this end, one of the levers Treasurer Wayne Swan pulled was to introduce a dramatic increase in AFSL fees.
In particular, the application fees for AFSLs were raised in some cases by 420 per cent, meaning applicants will now have to pay $1485 for the privilege.
And under this new regime, SMSF accountants would have to be the main category of practitioners in the firing line.
These fees have never had to be factored into what SMSF accountants charge for their services and you can be guaranteed some, if not all, of the cost will be passed onto the client.
The two initiatives, like others that have gone before, seem to be at loggerheads with one another and at this stage it is difficult to see how the twain shall meet.
On another note, we’d like to take this opportunity to inform readers SMSF magazine has been taken out of circulation and officially replaced by the SMSF section that is now appearing every fortnight in ifa.
We would like to assure you though that our commitment to providing the most insightful and comprehensive coverage of the fastest-growing segment of the superannuation market remains a firm objective.
ifa welcomes your contributions editorially
– news, features, emails to the editor. This is
your forum, your publication. Please email
the editor, Philippa Yelland, at
philippa.yelland@morningstar.com.
