Choosing An Accountant

ByAndrew Mirams

Our recommendation at INTUTIVE FINANCE has always been to maintain a balanced, suitably long term approach to your investments – consider all categories and retain as much flexibility as you can…and when it comes to wealth management, make sure you surround yourself with experts in the field – from buyers advocates, finance brokers and accountants to your legal advisers, be they lawyers or conveyancers….life is too complex to manage on your own!

The Accountant:

The accounting role is an extremely important one for you but in reality, often what your accountant will do for you simply “tops and tails” your investment strategy. In the initial stages, they will assist, along with your legal advisers, in establishing the investment structures required (e.g. trustee companies, SMSF’s etc) and then, once your strategy is up and running they will provide ongoing administrative services such as compiling, completing and lodging the various monthly, quarterly and annual documentation required to run these entities.

You need to be sure that your accountant has the core competencies covered – planning, tax returns, trusts, self-managed super funds et al, and if he or she doesnt, whether there are those resources available within their business.

In addition to this , apart from assuring yourselves of their financial security, its important to understand how experienced they are managing clients with similar strategies to yours. They should be familiar with the property investment market and able to provide you with a range of examples of how they have assisted clients to successfully build and maintain their portfolios. The big focus here is to be specific. Get them to detail case studies of their customer base (without them divulging any confidential information obviously!)

Your Checklist:

Here is a simple check list of some other issues to assist you in choosing the right accountant:

  1. Confirm their qualifications (CPA or CA and whether they have an Australian Financial Services Licence) – tasks such as bookkeeping, tax preparation and general financial management might not require a qualified person but if you require sophisticated tax or investment advice then you will need to ensure your partner is suitably qualified to provide such.
  2. Their network – are they well connected and could these connections benefit you?
  3. Client endorsements – what do their customers say about them?
  4. where are they located and does this matter – are you a face to face person or are you happy corresponding digitally?

Accountants are crucial to the process of building your wealth and we cant stress highly enough how important they can be – to find an accountant,start by searching online or asking family, friends and business colleagues or alternatively, give us a call and we can introduce you to practitioners within our network.

About Intuitive Finance

The team at Intuitive Finance will listen to your needs, undertake a comprehensive review of your current financial position and then provide a clear, detailed and comprehensive investment strategy for you to put in place. We have written close to a billion dollars in loans and our team has access to over 500 financial products from more than 30 lenders covering a myriad of requirements – from home loans for repeat and first home buyers to first time and astute investors – and is perfectly placed to help guide you through the available options.

Disclaimer:

The financial industry is a dynamic industry – continually evolving and changing. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, no guarantee is given that the information contained herein is currently correct. To the extent permitted by law, Intuitive Finance accepts no responsibility or liability for any loss or damage what so ever (including direct and indirect) to any person arising from the use or reliance on the information detailed here.

Andrew Mirams
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