The professional standards body should recognise the professional study accountants have undertaken in the past and only require them to layer it with advice-related study, according to AccountantsIQ.
Accountants IQ director and founder Bronny Speed told a media briefing in Sydney yesterday that accountants have undertaken various levels of qualification, such as degrees, the Chartered Accountants (CA) program, continuing professional development (CPD) and codes of ethics, and while they are not advice related, they are related to accounting as a profession.
“We haven’t got any understanding yet of whether the CA program is not necessarily counted, we don’t know,” Speed said.
Currently, existing advisers with related degrees in accounting, economics, finance, tax, law and financial planning are required to do a three-subject bridging course at Australian Qualifications Framework level 8 by no later than 1 January 2024, while those with related degrees and a related postgraduate qualification are required to do only one bridging course, which is the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) code of ethics.
Speed said AccountantsIQ will lodge a submission with FASEA in which it will advocate for accountants to fall in the latter category where they are required to complete only one subject in the bridging course to qualify to offer advice.
“What I’m then asking for is I don’t see the point in doing a code of ethics at 120 hours university subject level for our stream,” she said.
Instead, she is advocating for a combination subject in the accounting stream that will assist accountants to complete the exam.
The subject could include some advice-related ethics modules, behavioural finance, chapter seven of the Corporations Act, legislation, regulations and the Privacy Act.
Accountants who are advising must be on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission financial adviser register, along with maintaining CPD records, completing codes of ethics and accumulating work experience.
“They’ve never been in front of the compliance regulator and they’ve never done anything wrong and they’re still advising and they’ve got the degree and they’ve got the postgrad and they’re on the register, for God’s sake put them in the [latter category], which means they can do one composite subject, one exam, raise the bar that everyone has done that,” Speed said.
