Accountants welcome super exemptions

By Rebecca Evans

Accountants have warmly welcomed the recommendation by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (PJCCFS) to allow them to provide advice on all non-self managed superannuation fund structures.

According to CPA Australia financial planning policy adviser Catharine Crack, the recommendation is the cumulation of two years of lobbying and she urges the Government to act on the committee’s proposals.

Crack says the proposed clarification of section 7.1.29a of the Financial Services Reform Act (FSRA) will assist consumers in receiving a balanced point of view on structures, and the clarification “cements the line between structural advice and investment advice”.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Chartered Accountants chief executive Stephen Harrison says “consumers are better protected by having independent recommendations on superannuation fund structures from a recognised accountant who is able to give advice on the different benefits — free from commercial and vested pressures”.

The committee suggests accountants be required to provide clients with a disclosure document in relation to the types of advice they can provide, but Labor Senator Penny Wong says this is problematic because not all consumers have the same level of financial literacy.

“It assumes a level of understanding that just isn’t there,” Wong says.

The recommendations to be considered by the Federal Government will pave the way for accountants to provide a wide range of advice on superannuation structures without holding an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL), however, they will still require an AFSL to give underlying investment advice.