COVID-19 ‘exacerbating’ exodus of advisers from industry

Speaking in an online panel discussion, hosted by LightYear Docs, Mr Moss said some accounting firms may consider this an opportunity to expand into the financial advice space.

“When you have, say, 20 to 30 per cent of financial planners exiting the industry and their clients are saying that they need a new financial planner and they’re hearing that over and over, they might start to think about filling that gap,” Mr Moss said.

“Over the next five years, [there will be] massive numbers walking out and that’s all being exacerbated and pushed forward quicker with COVID. People think, well, is it really worth the stress and the effort now? How am I going to handle the COVID environment?”

However, given the difficulty with providing both accounting and advice services, this also presents accountants with a dilemma, he said. 

“They want to be in the financial planning space and they want to help their clients, but they also know from a balance perspective, there’s only so many hours in the day and you can’t do everything,” he said.

“Do you go full-time as a financial planner? It’s pretty difficult to be a part-time accountant/part-time financial planner.”

Mr Moss previously told accountants still on the fence about providing advice that they should still undertake the FASEA exam, as it provides them with more time to decide whether to stay in the financial advice space. 

“You’d be mad not to do it. There are people thinking about whether they want to be licensed or not, and there’s plenty of people who’ve stopped being licensed because they’ve decided that it’s not worth it, but they should still do the exam,” Mr Moss said.