Exposure Draft - Accountants' exemption replacement regulations

The Hon Bill Shorten MP released draft regulations for consultation which replace the accountants' exemption with a new form of limited license.

On 23 June 2012, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, announced arrangements to replace the exemption which currently allows accountants to provide financial advice on self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) without an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL).

Under the new arrangements, accountants will be able to access a new form of limited licence from 1 July 2013 which will enable them to discuss a range of financial products with their clients. The range of products includes SMSFs, superannuation, securities, simple managed investment schemes, general insurance, life risk insurance and basic deposit products. Apart from SMSFs, holders of this licence will only be able to talk about these products at a class of product level, meaning they cannot recommend specific products to their clients. Holders of this licence will also be able to lodge an annual compliance certificate rather than an auditor's report.

While designed for accountants, this limited form of licence will be available to anyone who satisfies the licensing requirements. However, accountants with a public practice certificate from one of the professional accounting bodies will be deemed to have the necessary experience to provide advice under this new form of license.

The accountants' exemption will be repealed from 1 July 2016.

An exposure of draft regulations was provided for comment.

Consultation Documents

Submissions

Submissions for this consultation closed on 21 December 2012.

Seventeen submissions have been received in response to this consultation. One of these submissions was confidential. The public submissions are listed below.

The opinions expressed in the submissions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government or The Treasury.