Blog
Tax deductibility advice ‘a step in the right direction’
“With an Australian Tax Office (ATO) review underway to make financial advice tax deductible, Tangelo Advice Consulting’s Conrad Travers has reiterated why this would be a positive step forward for the industry.
Though Travers, who had been involved in the ATO’s review and update of TD95/60 along with Deloitte legal practitioner director James Alsop, couldn’t offer explicit details on the review, he said: “We are really hopeful that a good portion of ongoing fees will be tax deductible as a result of that efficacy”. “We feel like this is a really strong step in the right direction, and we're going to keep advocating on your behalf,” he told audience members at the 2023 United Association Roadshow.”
“I need technology to solve inefficiencies…I think?”
We worked with a fantastic one adviser practice struggling with advice process, documentation and the value provided for clients.
Attempts to get guidance from their licensee and turning to a technology solution to generate filenotes quicker failed, as neither option was customised nor getting to the root of their problems.
Case study: Help us to simplify compliance
A mid-tier licensee not sure where to start got a simplified compliance approach, 40% improved paraplanning turnaround and an uptick in adviser engagement
Get to the point - clear advice will win out
Tangelo Advice Consulting’s Conrad Travers was quoted in Professional Planner’s coverage of the Quality of Advice Review discussion at the FAAA’s 2023 United Association Roadshow in May 2023.
Tangelo Advice Consulting principal consultant Conrad Travers predicted licensees would adapt and lift the supervision and monitoring frameworks in place to make sure the advice being given is clear. “I would recommend for new clients, even if they don’t ask for it, to give them a simple summary of the advice,” Travers said. “That could be five pages and make the advice really clear – what are you recommending and what are the next steps to the client. Beneath that, cover off the additional scenarios that you might have considered just in summary format, then the risks and the fees. If you do that, that’s best interest.”
‘Game changer’ ATO consultation on advice fees launched
Conrad Travers of Tangelo Advice Consulting has been working with the FPA to campaign for expanding tax deductions for financial advice fees. “We believe there is a strong case under both 8-1 and 25-5 for all financial planning fees to be deductible,” Travers says. “We believe that in our current environment, around 75 per cent of the strategies an adviser recommends have a tax component to them.” Travers says the firm looks forward to a potential win for advisers and their clients.
Structural rethink needed for advice industry
One of the interesting insights to come out of the ‘How to Regulate Advice session at Professional Planner’s Best Practice Forum was ASIC’s assessment that licensees themselves were being too conservative around policy guidance. That is, it was observed that licensees were going far beyond ASIC’s guidance, which in some circumstances had been to the detriment of scaled advice.
A fence at the top of the hill: changing how we think about “compliance”
Perspective is a powerful thing. Ask a financial adviser about “compliance” and you’re likely to get a grimace, a shrug or some kind of grunt. This is largely because compliance as we know it has been built and framed the wrong way.
Watch the knee-jerk when thinking about self-licensing
Make sure you understand all the risks and costs of self-licensing. A common view is that the cost to go self-licensed is minimal and there are players out there to help with the application and the outsourced services, particularly compliance. While this is true to a certain extent, my view is that it excludes some pretty important considerations.