An Insight Into New Financial Services
Since auditing and tax work has become extremely competitive and, in many ways, “commodity” work, the accounting profession keeps looking for new service areas where it can charge its full billing rates. One approach has been to develop a body of knowledge and package it as something they can develop a certification program for. An example is the CFP, Certified Financial Planner, which was promulgated to differentiate CPAs from the insurance and mutual fund hucksters holding themselves out as “Financial Planners”. In that case, it was a useful distinction and had the potential to be a good product offering. I’m not sure the general public is capable of concentrating long enough to appreciate the distinction, so I’m not sure how successful they’ve been at branding it.
Another less successful endeavor was an attempt to develop an assurance (like an audit) product called WebTrust to certify that commercial web sites were trustworthy. The angle was to propose an initial survey of a site’s processes, then review it quarterly, in exchange for being able to display the AICPA’s WebTrust icon on your site. The problem was that eCommerce was moving way too fast for the ponderous process that the profession was proposing, and it looked to me from the start like an elephant trying to breakdance.
Among some of my accounting email/spam this week arrived information about this new way to provide a distinctive service - the Certified Divorce Financial Analyst. The game seems to be to insert some kind of service into the interstices between the aggrieved couple and the “fuck-me, fuck-you” posturing of the divorce attorneys that allows the parties (this is a PARTY?) to somehow convene a caesura in their animosities and rationally consider the present AND future implications of their financial affairs.
What I really think these guys have in mind is to invade the turf previously owned by the divorce attorneys where you can determine how much money the divorcee gets, then have the inside track on catching her on the rebound. I can appreciate the business model behind this, and could glimpse myself pursuing a certification. Problems would arise when Mrs. Perils wanted to know what her cut was from my pre- and post-divorce emoluments, and the task of hiring a suitable CDFA to adjudicate the discussion. I’m better off, I think, sticking to fielding the occasional “smoke is pouring out of the back of my monitor - should I shut down my computer or do you want me to make a backup?” inquiries.
