Speaking at last week’s AFA conference on the Gold Coast, Mr Burgess told delegates practitioners need to identify and understand what phase their clients are in in terms of their SMSF decision making.
“If they’re intending investors, they’re more likely to want information about an SMSF. If they’re recent, they’re more likely to want help in the day-to-day admin. Established investors are more likely to want help with the implementation of their strategy,” he said.
Mr Burgess added practitioners who are not providing SMSF advice to those who are close to retirement or moving in to retirement could potentially lose some of their client base.
“If you’re not talking about SMSFs, someone else is,” Mr Burgess said
“I’m not suggesting pushing all of your clients who are getting close to retirement into SMSFs, but the point is you have to have enough knowledge and information about SMSFs to have an informed discussion with your clients because … they want to have that discussion.
“The conclusions are if you want to attract more clients in SMSFs, if you want to retain more clients in SMSFs, then you need to … take some time to identify what phase of their superannuation they’re in, and then tailor your advice accordingly.”
AMP’s advertising campaign has shown those practitioners considered experts in SMSFs are viewed as experts in all aspects of superannuation, Mr Burgess added.
What? keep clients by giving them something they don’t need? AMP are just trying to reposition their brand to protect loss of FUM from their archaic overpriced superannuation products. I’m sure that many would be unsophisticated investors who are totally not suited to filling the shoes of Trustees operating their own SMSFs.