Accountants should be formally managing the advice demands of their clients as part of their offering, regardless of whether or not they choose to become licensed.
“Accountants cannot give advice on products unless you’re a licensed authorised representative or you’ve got an Australian financial services licence,” Change Accountants and Advisors founder Timothy Munro told the 2015 Accountants’ Technology Showcase Australia in Sydney last week.
“So if you don’t want to get into [SMSF advice], you can refer it to a trusted source who isn’t targeting your clients, just make sure they’re focused on rolling out strategies to achieve clients’ goals.
“But I believe that accountants should be coordinating their clients’ wealth creation [nevertheless].”
Munro said accountants could use calculator tools to determine their clients’ wealth.
“Don’t breach the laws, [but instead] manage their wealth by giving them a one-page balance sheet that helps them to see where they are and makes projections to get them to a beautiful financial future,” he said.
“Do not leave this to planners and let them take the marketplace – you need to take control of this yourself and you can do it with the tools out there today.
“One of the biggest messages I’d like to get across is as accountants, please do not be scared of giving tax, cash-flow or even normal common-sense advice.”
Change Accountants and Advisors offered its clients a Freedom Planning service, which calculated the gap between how much money was needed in retirement and how much money clients should have to last to the age of 85, for example.
