Speaking to SMSF Adviser, the IPA’s executive general manager, leadership, Vicki Stylianou said accountants need to be “more careful and selective” about their choice of SMSF education and training.
“Certainly a lot more people are getting into the SMSF area… you see people that are not traditionally in the SMSF education space but are jumping in,” she said.
“If anything, the standards of the actual accountants and their knowledge is going up, partly because there is so much more out there. But I think the issue now becomes the quality of the education and the training they are receiving,” she added.
Ms Stylianou said accountants are generally “safe” if they get training from their accounting body or the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA).
“If you are talking about others who are not members of one of the bodies or do education outside the accounting bodies or outside SPAA, I am saying accountants just have to be wary of the quality of education,” she said.
“I think definitely the standards are being lifted anyway, just by sheer necessity because there is a lot more competition in the SMSF space,” she said.
SPAA senior manager, technical and policy Jordan George said “broadly” accountants do have sound education concerning SMSFs and there is not necessarily anything that needs to be improved.
“I think it is up to each individual accountant to make sure they understand all the different factors around advising a client into an SMSF, and making sure they have the appropriate knowledge base and training to make sure they can provide quality advice to their client,” he told SMSF Adviser.
Being a member of the IPA for many years now, I also run and own a training company AAMC Training Group and deliver SMSF training and really take acceptation to articles of this generalisation nature.
All RTO’s are subject to strict guidelines to meet not only ASIC’s requirements but also ASQA regulatory guidelines and if there are any members of the IPA that are not happy or if the IPA itself is not happy with the delivery of any registered training organisation, then they should approach them directly. To come out with statements of this nature has a detrimental effect on all training companies that are delivering to the required standards and are licensed to do so.
The accounting bodies have so far behind the best educators that you have to question the skills they “supposedly” bring to the educatipn table. And for SPAA to suggest that accountants do have sound education and there is not necessarily anything that needs to be improved seriously questions SPAA credibility.