Accountants need to overcome the significant misconception in the industry that the limited licence option will place a substantial compliance burden on them.
“The [essence] of a limited licence is that of course it is limited in scope, therefore it should follow that your compliance practices are also limited because they have to be geared to that scope,” Seven Peaks Consulting managing director and financial services lawyer Andra Lazarescu told selfmanagedsuper.
“You’re not running a fund and you’re not running a bank.
“You’re providing service A to service B, not A to Z.
“That’s a very big message that has to be put across because I think accountants are not appreciating that.”
Lazarescu added that accountants were looking at what happened with financial advisers’ experience with the Future of Financial Advice reforms and did not want similar burdens placed on them.
“At the end of the day you’ve got to be ready to muscle that kind of compliance if your clients want full advice,” she said.
“But accountants are not going for that type of licence.
“The feeling we’re getting out there is that being time poor is a major stumbling block for some people in the accounting industry.”
Last month, Lazarescu joined forces with compliance expert Jenny Basnec and business coach Gary Jenkins to provide accountants with an independent, professional team to guide them through the upcoming law change.
The team of professionals operates under the Seven Peaks business.
