Fees opens door to accountants

The advent of industry-wide fee-for-service could see many more accountants expand into financial planning, according to some industry commentators.

The move would be prompted by the potential marketing opportunities that arise for promoting themselves as long-standing fee-based practitioners to the traditional client base of planners.

Tony Martin, director of South Australia-based accounting and planning firm Advantage One, said a change to fee-for-service could result in many more accountants making the move into planning.

“It’s always made a lot of sense for accountancy firms to offer in-house planning, and a fee-based industry-wide regime would make it more compelling, considering we’re already fee for service.

“There are also lots of crossover between planning and accountancy firms, making it preferable from a business and client sense to have in-house specialists rather than use referrals and strategic alliances.”

CPA senior policy adviser for superannuation Michael Davison said accountants are in a “very good position to take advantage” of any fee-based change in terms of attracting clients.

“They are a lot more advanced in terms of offering fee-based advice than financial planners, many of whom have yet to make what will be a painful adjustment from commissions, Davison said.

He added that if planners struggled to adjust to a fee-based regime, some accountants might be motivated to launch in-house planning services rather than continue to outsource these to planners.

Count Financial chairman Barry Lambert said there “might be some truth in claims there will be more opportunities in planning for financial accountants under a fee-based regime”.

However, Lambert felt that the strongest reason for this was not because accountants would generally adapt better than planners to a fee-based regime.

“What is probably true is that the public perception of planners has been tarnished by recent events in the sector, whereas the perception of accountants has not.

“It’s a question of whether the public has picked up on the notion that ‘financial planner’ is a dirty word and will instead opt to go to an accountant,” he said.