Accountants risk losing 'trusted adviser status'

McLean Delmo Bentleys partner Jamie Bishop says accountants need to protect their status as the “trusted adviser” so as to not “give anyone else a chance to come in and take that role”.

“It’s very important for the profession to maintain the ‘trusted adviser’ status, and certainly historically the accountant has always been the ‘trusted adviser’ particularly in the SME space,” Mr Bishop said.

“Certainly, there are professionals [that] have tried to encroach on that space, such as financial planners, such as bankers [and] financiers.”

Mr Bishop said that while other industries have tried to move into the accounting space, scandals and “bad press” have hindered their ability to “take over” the accounting role.

“Certainly, the other people that have tried to rustle themselves [into the accounting industry] haven’t helped themselves with bad press and scandals, like the financial planning industry, the big four banks [and] financing in general.”

“[Accountants] have been pretty effective up until now in terms of protecting that space but that’s not to say that we need to let our guard down.”

Mr Bishop said the recent changes regarding the $1.6 million transfer cap on pension funds, to come into effect this July, provide a good opportunity for accountants to offer proactive advice to their clients.

“If all accountants are proactive with their client and contact them and say, ‘We’ve got to discuss these changes with you’, work through it, work through a plan to maximise the benefit coming out of those changes, then clearly no one else is going to get a chance to service that client,” he said.

“The biggest thing that we can do in the profession is be proactive in offering advice and I think if we’re proactive, then we don’t even give anyone else a chance to come in and take that role.”