SMSF practitioners failing to maximise qualifications
While the number of practitioners holding SMSF accreditation is on the rise, few practitioners are failing to take advantage of this specialisation in terms of attracting clients, according to the SMSF Academy managing director Aaron Dunn.
Mr Dunn said there is a still a relatively low level of specialisation in terms of those accredited as SMSF specialists, so the “ability to hang your hat on being a specialist is still certainly an advantage”.
He noted that few businesses are taking advantage of this, however.
“They’re not doing enough to demonstrate the specialist skills they already have; by that I mean demonstrating competency through the way they interact with clients and through their website and other communications,” he said.
“That’s one of the things we’ve found with the blog [...] it’s been able to allow me to demonstrate competency and then off that, that becomes a feeder to generate work,” he explained.
Mr Dunn said being a specialist won’t be enough if they don’t promote the level of service they’re offering and get people to understand who they are.
“Specialisation will continue to grow and the way in which people will do that is obviously going to be the key differentiator in the market place, because all of a sudden there’ll be a growing number of specialists,” he said.
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
