Investment Trends research director Recep III Peker said a lot of accountants, especially those already in the SMSF space, are thinking about broadening their proposition to include advice of some form.
“Right now we are in a very interesting period. As you are aware, there is this whole royal commission happening, and that’s affecting people’s trust in banks and financial planners as a whole,” explained Mr Peker.
A survey conducted by Investment Trends asked consumers to rank the different companies or professionals they use for SMSF services on a scale of one to 10 based on how much they trust them.
Mr Peker said the research showed that banks had lost a lot of trust since the royal commission commenced with average score now sitting around 4.6.
“Financial planners who were already at a relatively low base, are also less trusted than they used to be,” he said.
“That puts accountants in a unique position because of all the services that trustees turn to for advice, accountants are the most trusted.”
The only group ahead of accountants were family friends, he said.
“Even family and friends get an average score of 7, which shows that Australians in general aren’t that trusting but accountants received trust scores that were very similar to family and friends,” he said.
“That puts accountants in a unique position because banks and financial planners are suffering a lot from this trust deficient.”
Mr Peker said research undertaken by the firm also shows that those SMSFs who use accountants tend to have unmet advice needs that they are willing to pay for.
“So even if you didn’t expand into the market, and just had a close look at your own client base, there are a lot of opportunities to broaden the proposition that you have,” he said.
Couldn’t agree more with the above.
There is a lot in the Investment Trends report and a great opportunity for accountants that want to properly advise on SMSFs under the licensing rules. The needs for succession planning in a SMSF, estate and bloodline planning are going unheeded. But something needs to be done with the FASEA requirements.
I agree that accountants are still seen as the most trustworthy providers of advice. I only hope those accountants who do provide advice do the right thing and get appropriately licensed. Already there is a real issue with the following that ASIC needs to address if consumer confidence and trust is going to increase in the advice industry:
1. Accountants are still providing financial planning advice without being licensed.
2. Accountants who are members of the SMSF Association and display their ‘SMSF Specialist’ accreditation but are not licensed to provide advice are misleading the public. ASIC needs to ban the promotion of accreditations that cause confusion. The SMSF Association needs to have two seperate designations e.g. SMSF Tax Specialist for those accountants who can only provide tax advice in relation to the SMSF.
3. Mortgage Brokers and others who provide advice under the ‘general advice’ model. The RC and PC have stated that ‘general advice’ is misleading. We have too many people offering advice but stating it is under the guise of ‘general advice’ when clearly it is not.
4. AFSL’s signing up Authorised Reps who are not appropriate qualified to provide advice yet sell products on behalf of the AFSL. These AR’s don’t provide the consumers with an FSG or a Statement of Advice which contravenes the Corporations Act. This leaves the consumer vulnerable.
ASIC needs to make it very clear that only financial planners can provide advice – not accountants with exemptions, not brokers under the ‘general advice’ model, not Authorised Reps who don’t abide by the Corporations Act.
As soon as we can clear this all up will consumers have more faith in the system and those who can and do provide appropriate advice.