‘Innovational disruption’ to impact SMSF demand, says Deloitte

“If you think about the phenomenal growth of SMSFs as a desire for greater control, then the instrument of today is a SMSF,” said Mr Hardy.

“Innovational disruption in service offerings and other solutions that deliver on this underlying desire could [therefore] have an impact.”

Mr Hardy said while many of these non-SMSF service offerings and solutions are not yet on the market, there are already some that deliver on the need for greater control today, although they are not yet understood by consumers.

Deloitte director and partner of financial services, assurance and advisory, Andy Abeya, said there will also be greater specialisation within the SMSF industry.

“We will see a lot more SMSF specialists coming into the market but not being the key adviser that clients go and see; it will be through that relationship that [clients] access those groups of subject matter experts,” Mr Abeya said.

Mr Abeya also expects advisers to come from a wider array of backgrounds.

“I’m not quite sure as to where the future pool of SMSF advisers will come from. I think accountants definitely have a value given the close relationship between tax and superannuation within the SMSF environment, but I expect we’ll see advisers come from all different types of backgrounds,” he said.

“Advisers or organisations that push more around the relationship side of things will need advisers with much stronger interpersonal skills whereas those that focus a lot more around the technical, will need to rely more on those technical experts which may or may not come from finance or accounting backgrounds.”