Article continued from yesterday …
Mr Lindsay added that “the challenge for accountants is to understand where those lines are, and to understand very clearly what they’re licensed to provide and what they’re licensed to be able to discuss”.
Ms Lumsden Kelly said accountants risk violating prohibitions in the Corporations Act by overstepping their advisory boundaries and spruiking products and services related to self-managed super funds which they are not licensed for.
“It’s strictly a Corporations Act requirement,” she said. “This requirement has never applied to them [accountants) in the past so it’s essentially a new requirement that’s going to apply to them once they obtain a limited licence, or even if they choose to become an authorised representative of another licensee.”
However, the lines are blurred when determining whether advice is solicited or unsolicited, noted Ms Lumsden Kelly.
“I think that’s where the accountants are more likely to fall afoul of hawking – it’s less clear,” she said. “Has the client made a positive request? What was it that actually triggered that request, and was it reasonable in the context of the conversation that was being had?”
The “alarming” lack of accountants obtaining licences has resulted in a failure to address any post-licensing compliance obligations, according to Ms Lumsden Kelly.
“It is something that should be in a set of standard policies and procedures that an accountant implements into their practice, but the degree to which that is done effectively in the mad scramble to get a licence is questionable,” she added.
An ASIC crackdown could result in problems for accountants who fail to properly educate themselves about their new obligations, she said.
“If there’s a high level of ignorance about the obligation, which we are obviously at risk of because of the time pressures, there is scope for it to be breached a lot,” she concluded.
Our RG146 course is a two-day facilitator lead training program. We understand the difficulty accountants have with time so our philosophy is that we come to the accountant. Our first RG146 course is being held in NSW on October 7 and 8 and costs $1,250.00. To register please send an email to [email protected]
Source: SMSF Adviser Written by Mitchell Turner Monday, 14 September 2015
If you found this article interesting, why not
- SEND it to a friend from the sidebar
- LEAVE A COMMENT by clicking on the icon at the top of the article
- Send FEEDBACK directly to us at [email protected]