Accountant advice is no better than that of advisers says ASIC



Accountants and financial tax advisers (TFAs) cannot lay claim to providing better quality advice than ordinary financial advisers, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
What is more, ASIC has made clear that it remains strongly opposed to any move towards reinstating the so-called accountant’s exemption, albeit that the regulator is prepared to support a simplification of the accountant’s limited licensing regime.
The regulator’s views are made crystal clear in its submission to the Review of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) recently released by Treasury.
Amid recent calls by accounting groups for reinstatement of the accountant’s exemption, ASIC said however, that while it did not consider that there was any justification for reinstating the old accountants’ exemption (or modified version of it), “we do acknowledge that there are aspects of the accountants’ limited AFS licence regime that are to difficult to understand and comply with”.
“We would support simplifying the regime through law reform,” it said. “We would be happy to provide input to any such simplification process.”
“Finally, we note that through our work, we have not seen evidence that Tax Financial Advisers (TFAs) or accountants provide more compliant advice or better financial advice for consumers than other financial advisers and do not believe that concessions from the financial advice regime for accountants can be justified on this basis,” the ASIC submission said.
Recommended for you
As the 1 January 2026 education deadline looms, the FAAA is predicting as many as 1,000 advisers could exit the profession, triggering a significant experience loss for the profession.
AMP has made an internal promotion to head of business development for wealth distribution, as chief executive Alexis George has said the firm is doubling down on its BDM team.
A Supreme Court of Western Australia jury has issued its verdict regarding unregistered MIS operator Chris Marco, who was on trial for 43 fraud charges, with ASIC stating the verdict ends a “sorry chapter”.
Investment Trends has revealed Australian advisers are increasingly turning to ETFs to provide portfolio diversification, while new inflows for unlisted managed accounts have seen a double-digit drop.