The Institute of Financial Professionals Australia (IFPA) has used its pre-Budget submission to the Government stating accountants should be able to play a bigger role in delivering super-related advice to clients.
The institute, which represents 22,000 professionals, argues that many super fund members and Self Managed Super Fund (SMSF) trustees are unable to obtain timely and affordable advice.
“The current financial advice system is not fit for purpose and many superannuation fund members and SMSF trustees are not able to access good affordable financial advice when they need it,” states the report.
“Our members want to provide strategic and structural superannuation advice to their clients relating to their tax affairs.”
Frank Drenth, Head of tax policy at the institute, says this advice should sit outside the definition of financial product advice, which “…would continue to be the responsibility of financial advisers”.
It is paradoxical that accountants cannot provide such simple superannuation advice…
“It is paradoxical that accountants cannot provide such simple superannuation advice particularly when they have access to the tax agent portal and can see their client’s total superannuation balance, their available contribution cap space, [and] contributions made by/for them through single touch payroll, etc.”
The institute’s submission also called for authorised financial advisers to be granted secure, read-only access to the ATO portal, citing inefficiencies created by advisers’ reliance on accountants for client data.
It also stressed the institute is not seeking to allow accountants to provide financial product or investment advice.
Click here to read IFPA’s full submission.
