While they have been mislabelled as do-it-yourself funds and many who have started them find they need professional help inrunning and administering them or choosing their investments, SMSFs are definitely here to stay. In 1999, there were around 180,000 funds, and now there are around 320,000. They are responsible for more than 23 per cent of all superannuation monies, which is almost $250 billion. And they are growing at 2000 per month. Last week, the SPAA conference attracted 700 delegates. When Channel 9 journalist Ross Greenwood said to chief executive Andrea Slattery that the association must be doing well financially with the high delegate numbers, Slattery replied that "between Ross's bank balance and this conference we will be able to go off and have a good time".
Greenwood chaired a session with industry heavyweights, including Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia chief Graham Meyer and FPA chair Corinna Dieters. After trying to gain ground by lightheartedly suggesting the growth of SPAA had been due to "opportunists looking for a free lunch", he later equally lightheartedly said he'd learned from chairing the session that "financial planners are people who love to have long relationships with clients. They love to nurture those relationships and they don't do it for the money". SPAA has made much ground in its almost four years of existence. There are now 860 members of the association, including 441 who hold the specialist SMSF designation(SSA).
The association aims to have an SSA working on every SMSF within five years. While it may seem SPAA needs to increase its numbers, especially of SSAs, Slattery said it did not want to grow at the expense of quality. It has already expelled three members and has another seven sitting on a warning.
