A independent service to help guide accountants through the apparent maze of licensing options has been launched by a former financial planning policy adviser and manager for CPA Australia and former head of the AMP-owned licensee SMSF Advice.
Kath Bowler, chief executive officer of Licensing For Accountants, says if accountants start to work out the best licensing option for themselves and for their business by assessing the likely training requirements then they’re starting in the wrong place. But there is a dearth of independent, in-depth information to help accounting businesses to get started.
Too many accountants are too focused on the mechanics of the licensing process. It should not start there – rather it should start with the strategic objectives of their business.
Bowler says the starting point should be “about their business, and where they want to go”.
“The licensing decision should fall out of that,” she says.
By focusing on the options first, “my concern is that … they are focusing on the wrong thing”, Bowler says.
“There’s no independent source of information helping accountants,” she says.
“Information form professional bodies is often difficult to find; some of the licensees have great information but it’s tied into a biased sourced, so it’s difficult for accountants to take it on face value.”
The first part of a new series written by Bowler, mapping a path through the licensing maze, appears in the February edition of Professional Planner magazine. An edited version of that article appears online.
“I guess a range of accountants are getting focused on the fact that that may need to do the full diploma,” Bowler says.
“That’s not a hard step. Most accountants have to do 40 hours of CPD anyway; this is not a difficult thing.
“The difficult thing is around how accountants have to have conversations with clients, and the disclosure required as a result of those conversations in a licensed environment.
“Another thing I have been spending a lot of time with accountants on is separating out their business and them. Where do you want the business to go? What role do you wan to have in that business?”bowler says that as the scope of services offered by the firm expands, it’s not always possible to be all things to all people.
“It’s not that they are not capable, it’s just that there aren’t enough hours in the day,” she says.
Bowler has created a starter kit for accounting firms considering their options.
The kit includes:
– a discount voucher for RG146 training from Kaplan or IIT (valued at $150);
– one complimentary use of a Licensee Matching Service, or a discount voucher to assist with preparing your ASFL application, through either Compact Compliance and Training (part of Holley Nethercote), or The Fold Legal (valued at $550);
– a four-part webinar series, and supporting guides covering “You”, “Your business”, “Your clients” and “Your referral partners”; and a 12-month subscription to Professional Planner magazine (valued at $617).
Licensing For Accountants is offering the starter kit for $650 to SMSF Association members, and for $780 to non-SMSFA-members.
