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The government is showing “appetite” to acknowledge the education and qualifications the accounting profession has to soften the impact of the incoming financial advice education standards, says one accounting body.
‘Appetite’ for accountants’ licensing reform with government
12 December 2018
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7 minute read
Speaking on Accountants Daily Live, Institute of Public Accountants chief executive, Andrew Conway said the professional body has lobbied for the licensing regime to be reformed to ensure that accountants will not be kept out of the advice space.
“While there have been people who have moved into the limited licence regime, the vast majority of those in practice haven’t so I’ll say, from a systemic point of view, has the structured licensing regime worked? And I think the answer is no,” said Mr Conway.
“We are arguing that we actually need to reform the licensing arrangement to reflect the fact that the engagement with the accountant is at a different level and the accountant has a different base level of competence – this is not about being elitist, this is about being realistic.
“There is appetite… we originally saw this as a bridge too far that government wouldn’t be entertaining it but they have indicated they are willing to listen because we have presented to them the facts that people are simply not getting the advice they were once able to get and rather than opting out of advice from an accountant or a financial planner, they are simply opting out of advice.”
As it stands, accountants providing even limited financial advice – like basic SMSF set-ups – will need to do three or so bridging courses at a tertiary level to remain compliant beyond 2024 under FASEA’s new education standards.
Mr Conway believes the new education requirements will drive out accountants from the market, leaving Australians with fewer options at a time where they need it most.
“The differential between what you are required to do as a limited and full license holder is negligible, if at all. If you are going to be building those competences and using those education standards to guide your training and you are not going to use it, ultimately what’s the point?,” said Mr Conway.
“We have to acknowledge that the accounting profession is starting from a very different point. The financial planning sector is later to the argument around professionalism – it has made great strides but we have to acknowledge that the accounting profession has been doing its trade and craft for the last series of centuries so we are coming at different angles.
“We are working on some viable options to recognise the qualification and skill that accountants bring … the government has indicated they will listen and we will keep prosecuting the case.”
For the full background of the profession’s lobbying efforts, click here.
Watch Accountants Daily Live for an insight into what the incoming education changes mean for accountants.
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- Politicians ALWAYS tell you they are listening and will consider what you have asked. The question is how often do they actually do anything about it?0
- A good outcome would be if the unworkable Limited Licence would be upgraded to a full AFSL. The difference in required knowledge is marginal and easily accessible through comparison software products. This would give accountants who want to remain in the financial planning space a decent basis to do so independently and thereby offering consumers a much better choice. Easy to do, good for consumers. It would be good if the professional bodies pursued this avenue.0
- This is why I’m a proud member of the IPA. Great work Andrew Conway!0
- And where are the FPA & AFA in this fight ?0
- Keep up the good work Andrew
Gases are really hopeless and going to put various people and their staff out of work0 - Love how IPA seems to fight for us accountants, where are CPA and CAA in this debate?0
- they are busy determining who is the greatest accountant of all, CA or CPA0
- I went to the first CPA session about this in Melb years back. From minute 2 I could tell it was overly onerous and unworkable, the shocked faces staring at each other in the crowd showed me I was not alone. Then someone asked what the CPA was doing to fix it and get a better outcome and was told "it's done, it's not changing and you have to do it" At that point I decided I was either getting out of super or becoming a financial planner. In the end i got out.
As I've said all along, the education is not the main issue, it's the bottom 10% who are not capable or are only acting in their own interests that need to be removed from the industry ASAP - more education requirements don't work for these people. When you see serious numbers being de-registered then you'll start to see a real change, until then the more training merry-go-round will continue until you decide to get off.0
