Accountants charge into planning
Chartered accountants continue to prepare to move into financial planning with a new proposal to change the governance structure of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA).
Chartered accountants continue to prepare to move into financial planning with a new proposal to change the governance structure of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA).
Under the proposed changes, chartered accountants will be able to continue using their CA designation even when they do not own their own practices. Under cur-rent rules, chartered accountants need to own an accountancy practice in order to use the designation, which ICAA vice president Geoff Brayshaw says has hin-dered the formation of professional partnerships.
"Under the present rules, if a CA goes into Investor Group for example, he can't use the CA designation. But in the eyes of the public - and in his own eyes - he is still a CA. He still has the same ethics and the same code of practice."
The separation of ownership and control would allow those CAs to continue to use the CA designation.
The changes could also facilitate the move of CAs into the financial planning arena. While Brayshaw insists that it is not the only reason the ICAA is looking at changing the governance structure, he concedes it is one of the reasons.
"Going into financial services is one of the issues and certainly chartered ac-countants are looking over the horizon, rather than risk being stampeded from behind," he says.
The chief executive officer of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) Michael McKenna says the association is not concerned about the proposed changes.
"Financial planning is a very specialised field and although accountants are trained in a number of the facets necessary to be a good financial planner, there are a number of areas which don't fall into accounting training, special-ist areas which need good financial planning training - and we do that. I don't see chartered accountants as a threat to financial planners. I believe we can hold our own."
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