Accountants get help on SMSF advice exemption

Accountants who find themselves precluded from providing advice with respect to self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) because of legislative changes will be able to obtain assistance from a new group specifically established to help them get around the new regime without having to obtain their own Australian Financial Services Licence.

An accountancy group has established a SMSF business to help its colleagues deal with the removal of the accountants' exemption on providing advice with respect to SMSFs.

The group, Exclusively Super Uncompromised, said it would be offering two levels of service: the opportunity for affected accountants to become authorised representatives using their financial services licence and access to a range of SMSF process products and information.

One of the group's funders, SMSF specialist and chartered accountant Carolyn Baker, said the Government's new legislation meant accountants would no longer be able to recommend clients establish, join, acquire or dispose of an interest in a SMSF unless they had an Australian Financial Services Licence.

"This is why we have established Exclusively Super Uncompromised — to provide accountants with alternatives so they can continue to help their clients with SMSF matters without the significant investment in establishing an AFSL," she said.

"Most accountants would simply be forced to drop their SMSF work because of this substantial investment, which is a real shame as they have in most cases a long and established relationship with their clients in what is a trillion-dollar industry," Baker said.