As part of its submission to phase three of the Cooper Review, the Self-Managed Super Funds Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) has called for a new licencing regime for accountants.
“We’re saying the accountants exemption hasn’t worked and clearly there are issues and concerns in the industry that accountants are pushing people into self-managed super funds (SMSFs) irrespective of whether they should be doing that and they’re not able to give advice on an industry fund, or a corporate fund,” SPAA chair Sharyn Long said.
“So what we’re suggesting is that there should be licencing of accountants who wish to give structural advice or advice on the type of fund a member should be part of and we believe that it should be done through an ASIC licencing process,” she said.
Under the proposal, the licence for the accountants would be restricted and would still not allow them to provide investment advice for their clients.
If they did want to offer investment advice they would then have to apply for a full financial services reform licence.
“We’re thinking that it would cover off things like the awareness of different sectors in super, member investment choices … and general knowledge about SMSFs and the consequences of establishing one and the ongoing maintenance of them,” Long said.
Long was quick to clarify the move is not intended to establish a registration of administrators.
SPAA is looking to establish an accreditation called the SMSF Specialist Restricted Licenced Advisor (SSR) for the new accounting framework.
