Individuals seeking advice on their self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF) are preferring to use the services of a professional who is an expert in the field, new industry research has revealed.
The finding is a result of “The SMSF Generations Report” compiled by Macquarie Bank and the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia.
“When we asked people about who they want to get advice from it wasn’t necessarily an adviser or an accountant, for many people it was a professional who is an expert in the field,” Macquarie Banking and Financial Services Group analytics research manager Gary Lembit said.
When conducting the research, respondents were also given the choice between the terms financial adviser and accountant as their preferred advisory sources, Lembit said.
He said the response reflected a shift in priorities among SMSF trustees.
“At the outset of self-managed super funds there were of course a lot of issues about ‘how do I set it up, what are the nuts and bolts?'” he said.
“But the market’s quite mature. People have already been through all that. Those things have become less important. So what’s important? [Issues like] ‘what have I got in it and how well is it performing’, and so the diversity of advice we need access to for those sorts of questions means advisers are playing a really important role.”
SPAA chief executive Andrea Slattery said the research showed the industry body’s SMSF Specialist Auditor and Advisor designations were beginning to gain meaningful traction.
“There was an interesting statistic out of the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) research just recently that actually showed SPAA was the association of choice for education and information and competency support,” Slattery said.
“It’s the first time these accreditations have gone above the accounting organisations. That was another aspect we found that was very important.”
The report found the ‘silent generation’ (66 and up) was the most likely to seek financial advice. Around 55 per cent have a financial adviser.
The baby boomers (48-65) are increasingly seeking advice, perhaps because of the high amount of funds they hold and being close to retirement. About 44 per cent currently have an adviser.
In contrast, for generation X (34-47) and generation Y (18-33) only 29 per cent and 20 per cent have a financial adviser respectively.
“It’s really about understanding the generations and the different needs that people have at different age groups,” Lembit told InvestorDaily.
For gen Y clients, the adviser should focus on education and taking the time to explain the different investment options and how to go about implementing them, he said.
In contrast, gen Xers are typically at a busier time in the life cycle, so advisers should be conscious they have very little time.
“So it’s all about providing a structured environment from being able to get up meetings at times that suit the clients, maybe out of normal business hours, [and] making it easy for people to get involved,” Lembit said.
“Once they get to baby boomer level they have more time, but they also have more experience so you can start the conversation at a different level.”
