Licensing for Accountants founder Kath Bowler has taken on an additional role of general manager for the training and compliance arm of a legal firm, with plans to leverage off the business’s synergies, as well as fill product gaps.
Bowler’s appointment to Holley Nethercote’s Compact division was a natural extension of the joint venture arrangement Licensing for Accountants already has in place for licensed accountants.
She will maintain her position as Licensing for Accountants chief executive.
“Compact provides training and compliance support to financial planners and Licensing for Accountants has already been offering assistance and resources to accountants getting licensed to give SMSF advice,” she told selfmanagedsuper.
“But we’re a small, independent business and Compact is a much larger business, so there will be an opportunity to broaden the support we offer to licensed accountants as we’ll have more resources.
“As part of my role, what we’re looking to do is explore opportunities to commoditise potentially some of the products that Compact has so we can take what we’ve built and tweak it for the broader financial planning audience.
“We’re both after practical compliance solutions and there are a number of synergies [to explore], including bridging Compact’s gap by taking their training and technical content and delivering it to planners, accountants and integrated practices.”
She said both firms had a shared philosophy of building support services to help advisers “do it right the first time”, hence it was a natural fit to take on the additional role.
“We have had a significant increase in demand for support that caters for both licensed accountants and licensed financial planners within the one business, but often under two different licensing arrangements,” she noted.
“My expanded role will provide an opportunity to better service these integrated businesses.
“I look forward to this new opportunity to support both planners and accountants in their licensing journey.”
