Speaking to SMSF Adviser, Plenty Plus founder Greg Einfeld said while there has been continued interest in automated advice since Plenty Plus was launched following the removal of the accountant’s exemption, there has been increased interest following some of the surveillance undertaken by the regulator.
“Interest has been reasonably constant, certainly when accountants do see that ASIC is doing something, there is a temporary uptick and there have been a number of occasions when that’s happened,” said Mr Einfeld.
“ASIC has been public about doing a number of shadow shopping surveys with accountants and so on whenever that comes out in the news we get a few additional registrations.”
Co-founder Josh Golombick said there is still a bit of a ‘head in the sand’ mentality among some of the unlicensed accountants in regards to licensing however, and given that, ASIC hasn’t really penalised any accountants as yet.
“ASIC have made a lot of noise about regulating the space, but to date they haven’t fined any accountant or made an example of anyone,” said Mr Golombick.
“ASIC have started their shadow shopping, we’ve spoken to accountants who’ve received calls or who they believe were ASIC calling them. They’ve reached out to trustees, to speak to them so they’re not doing the surveillance activity for nothing, something will come about eventually but it has just been the first year.”
