Advisers and accountants working together 'is the future'

The head of accounting firm ASV Wadeson Chartered Accountants believes financial advisers and accountants working together "is the future".

In a new opinion piece published on ifa, ASV Wadeson co-founder and director, Jose Alguera-Lara, has argued that both the advice and accounting professions are facing the same "war for talent crisis" with planners and accountants leaving the industry and not being replaced by new entrants at the same rate.

"Compounding the situation are expectations of time-poor clients demanding one-stop-shop holistic businesses that deliver more relevant, comprehensive and higher level of value-add services," Mr Jose Alguera-Lara wrote.

"It’s for this reason that accountant-financial planner joint ventures (JVs) are gaining momentum as the previous loose ‘alliances of convenience’ between the two professions are rapidly losing favour."

Mr Alguera-Lara said that one of the "roadblocks" stopping advisers and accountants working together is that accountants lack a proper appreciation and understanding of the advice process and do not benefit from the long-term approach adoption that advisers use.

To work effectively together, he advocated that both professions carve out "clearly defined" objectives, have access to the latest technology, use a "corporatised" business model and a defined business plan.

"...I am absolutely convinced that accountants and financial planners working together in JVs is the future for the simple reason that both work best when they join forces and combine their enormous range of financial knowledge, experience and expertise to deliver superior benefits and outcomes for clients!"

Read the full opinion piece here.

Mr Alguera-Lara's comments come after Quality of Advice Review (QAR) reviewer Michelle Levy raised concerns about creating exceptions within the advice regime and indicated a preference for a principles-based regime.

Speaking on a panel discussion on the QAR last week, Ms Levy commented on a proposal by some accounting bodies that called for legislative changes to enable accountants to be able to provide certain types of strategic advice — including SMSF advice.

“I have the concluded view that I don’t like exceptions. I think they are inconsistent with a principles-based approach, which is what I am preferring,” Ms Levy said.

“I worry about creating exceptions, and I think there needs to be a very compelling reason to do that.”

Meanwhile on a recent episode of the ifa Show podcast, FINSIA CEO and managing director Yasser El-Ansary reiterated his view that the advice regulatory model should mirror the accounting framework in Australia put forward in the group's QAR submission to Treasury.

"We should turn our mind to the option to borrow some of this experience, some of this thinking and the framework that exists for the accounting profession, and at least have a debate about it," Mr El-Ansary said.

Listen to the full podcast with Mr El-Ansary here.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.