Great Southern paid $344 million in commissions and marketing from 2000 to 2008, which was about half the $677 million it spent on agricultural expenses over that period, an analysis of annual reports shows. The company had a network of more than 300 accountants, who generated at least half of its sales and were paid commissions of up to 10 per cent, analysts said. A suburban Western Australian accountant who was authorised to sell Great Southern products said it helped him register by filling out the regulatory paperwork, providing training and flew its best salesmen interstate for conferences every year. "I never pushed Great Southern as a tax-planning tool, but there were probably some authorised representatives who did, and some who were doing it just for the commissions," said the accountant, who declined to be named. Another accountant who was a Great Southern representative said a seminar for accountants two weeks ago gave no hint of trouble. "The report was quite positive - they were pitching how they differentiated from Timbercorp and why they would be OK," said the adviser, who invested $250,000 in the schemes on his own behalf. "I'm not too happy, but the trees don't know there is a problem, so we'll see what happens." Financial planners, under fire recently for putting clients into a range of failed investments, have blamed accountants for putting most investors into Great Southern. Financial Planning Association chief executive Jo-Anne Bloch was investigating how many FPA members had clients in Timbercorp and Great Southern, but she expected there would be "very few financial planners involved overall". "It appears that the majority of advisers promoting these schemes were accountants, or people authorised by the product issuers to sell their products," Ms Bloch said. "This is of great concern to the FPA and we will certainly be investigating how product issuers can authorise this activity." Australian Securities and Investments Commission records show 316 "authorised representatives" of Great Southern, many of whom are tax accountants from small practices. The authorised representatives were trained by and acting under licence from Great Southern to promote investment in Great Southern, taking 10 per cent commissions. CPA Australia's general manager of policy and research, Paul Drum, said "fee for service" arrangements were favoured over commissions, but unless accountants were unlicensed and unregistered, there wasn't much the professional body could do. "We have run year-end warnings for a number of years about tax-effective investment, warning people to look at the underlying economic benefit, otherwise it's not our business. Some people are more receptive to risk than others," he said. Another financial planner, who declined to be named, said while Great Southern used representatives, Timbercorp used financial planners to sell its product. "Great Southern had their own licence, and could authorise accountants to put investors in without being individual licensees," the planner said. "They effectively had their own sales force, which they used more widely than they used the financial planning community. "Someone like Timbercorp was more into financial planning groups." Another financial planner, who also did not want to be named, said the process of accountants acting as authorised representatives was "absolutely riddled with conflicts". "The appropriateness of an investment to a person is a requirement under regulations, and tax should never be the only or main consideration," he said. mjacobs@afr.com.au KEY POINTS Accountants generated at least half of Great Southern's sales and were paid commissions up to 10 per cent. Using accountants was riddled with conflicts, a financial planner said. Pulp fiction Great Southern has 47,000 tax-effective MIS investors spread across: Forestry 240,000 hectares planted 600,000 tonnes woodchip produced a year Cattle 1.4 million hectares freehold 2.4 million hectares leased 230,000 cattle Horticulture 2900 hectares olive groves 2300 hectares vineyards 1000 hectares almonds Great Southern breakdown of $1.8bn MIS sales by product over past 5 years Winegrapes 8% Almonds 1% Olives 10% Cattle 9% High value timber 8% Pulpwood 64% Great Southern commissions and marketing v agriculture expenses ($m) Agriculture expenses Commissions &