The industry body said it will be offering SMSF members a new annual membership rate of $48 plus GST which will give members the access to a range of services and benefits, including:
- educational content
- access to experienced practitioners
- enhancing SISFA’s advocacy efforts for members in Canberra
- investment opportunities suitable for SMSFs
- national seminars/webinars provided by SISFA and its partners
- newsletters
According to SISFA, the introduction of new service providers and offerings to trustees will correct the imbalance where investment opportunities were only available to large super funds.
It said up to 200,000 SMSF trustees can be contacted quickly with this offer through existing communication channels and those of new associated partners and sponsors of the association.
SISFA managing director Michael Lorimer said that, alongside its advocacy efforts, for some time now SISFA’s focus has been to build a network of like-minded professionals in the SMSF sector to stay informed of technical and policy issues and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas.
“While this has been successful, it has become noticeable that the needs of 1.1 million SMSF members extend beyond supporting the professionals on whom they rely for advice and expertise,” Mr Lorimer said.
“SISFA has long debated how to better support these individuals who are essentially ‘running their own money’ (with or without a professional adviser) and often do not have all the know-how to protect their nest eggs.
“The financial services sector has taken them for granted and often only taken their own industry agendas to regulators.
“They have not ignored trustees but rather thought that their agenda would also cover the needs of trustees without involving them in the discussion.”
