SMSF lender & SMSF administration provider winners revealed
SMSF Adviser is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s SMSF Awards for SMSF lender and SMSF administration provider.
Bank of Queensland has won the award for SMSF lender in the SMSF Awards this year, while Heffron has won SMSF administration provider. This is the second last round of winners to announced, with the remaining winners to be revealed tomorrow.
SMSF Awards 2020
It has been another tumultuous year for the SMSF sector, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn impacting everything from investment to compliance. The ATO and the SMSF sector in general has worked tirelessly to address some of the unforeseen issues arising from the current environment. As always, SMSF professionals and their clients have relied heavily on SMSF service providers to guide them through this period of change. Partnering with firms that are adaptable and agile is critical at the moment and has a direct impact on the confidence and satisfaction of clients.
Now in its seventh year, the SMSF Awards recognises the excellence and innovation of the best performing operators servicing SMSF professionals. The winners are based on a survey which was distributed to SMSF Adviser’s database of SMSF professionals. The results were collated and determined by an independent analyst.
SMSF LENDER WINNER: BANK OF QUEENSLAND
Highly commended: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank
While a number of banks have exited the SMSF lending space in recent years, particularly for residential property loans, this year’s winner remains focused on servicing the SMSF market with its loan products. Despite some of the volatility in market, property has seen a resurgence in interest by SMSFs in recent months, with some SMSF investors looking to take advantage of some of the attractive property values available at the moment. With related party loans becoming more complicated from a regulatory point of view, finding a commercial lender with the right expertise and attractive features and rates is important for any client with a strong interest in using their SMSF to acquire property.
Bank of Queensland
"BOQ is incredibly proud to be recognised as the SMSF Lender of the Year. We are one of only a handful of financial institutions that continue to support SMSF lending. We have a deep understanding of our clients and their needs and believe it’s important to offer tailored solutions to them."
SMSF ADMINISTRATION WINNER: HEFFRON
Highly commended: SuperGuardian
SMSF administration is an important conerstone to the compliance and types of strategies adopted by SMSFs. Providing SMSFs with timely administration services and technical support has been increasingly important in recent years as SMSFs and their advisers navigate transfer balance account reporting and the total superannuation balance and its impact on contributions and strategies. Heffron, a second time winner of this award, has a long history of providing services to SMSF professionals and trustees and is well regarded in the industry for its exceptional technical expertise and knowledge.
Meg Heffron, managing director, Heffron
"Heffron’s reason for being is to support advisers, accountants and trustees to explore all the great benefits of SMSFs with confidence and hassle free.
For our adviser and trustee clients this generally means providing amazing SMSF Administration services and we’re thrilled our efforts here have been recognised for the second year in a row as winners of the SMSF Adviser SMSF Administrator of the year.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the best SMSF experience for trustees comes from a strong partnership between all the professionals involved in managing their SMSF.
Our role as administrators is first and foremost to make sure compliance is seamless. We’re proud of our record here and the many changes we continue to make to ensure that our clients’ compliance work is quick, efficient and low impact on trustees and their other advisers. The fact that 20 per cent of our 2019/20 returns were already being audited or beyond by early August 2020 highlights how important we treat this basic expectation of administrators.
But even more than that, our clients tell us they value the insights, strategies or solutions to problems we can share – all of which comes naturally with deep SMSF knowledge and 20 years’ practical experience. The quality and depth of this extra support makes our administration service unique in the industry.
We’re fortunate that the breadth of our business beyond administration only makes this better. It means we can draw on experiences from not just our own funds under administration but also insights gained from advising other accountants and administrators via our technical support, education, actuarial certificates and document services as well as our work with regulators and professional bodies."
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