Accountants to dominate

Accountants will emerge as a dominant player in the financial planning industry, according to high profile accountant Robert MC Brown.

Accountants will emerge as a dominant player in the financial planning industry, according to high profile accountant Robert MC Brown.

"Accountants who are able to get their acts together will be able to exclude other advisers from getting to first base," Brown told the recent Zurich Finan-cial Gurus conference.

"Accountants are waking up to the opportunity to get into the financial planning industry. They are waking up very late, but better late than never."

Brown, who is executive director of Bridgeport, said accountants would prosper in an increasingly professional financial planning market.

"The entry of the accounting profession will also add a whole new wave of people with tertiary and professional qualifications to an industry which must become more like a profession and less like a sales operation," he said.

But according to Brown, accountants who continue avoiding financial planning strategies may find their client base drying up.

"For accountants who do not wish to adopt the financial planning strategy, there are significant threats," he said

"I consider this a new industry. The industry of giving of advice. And whether they like it or not, they [accountants] are in the advice industry, and for those who are prepared to recognise financial planning, the industry is abso-lutely unlimited."