SMSF online service provider SuperCentral has launched an estate planning support facility for financial advisers and accountants.
Called EPAdvantage, the new service is being offered in the form of an estate planning membership program for SMSF practitioners.
Townsends Business and Corporate Lawyers principal Peter Townsend told selfmanagedsuper the initiative was developed specifically to help accountants and financial planners initiate the estate planning conversation with their clients and give the process some structure, better enabling practitioners to charge a fee for the advice provided.
“The program has been designed to put the adviser in the driving seat and give them an opportunity to be proactive, to be useful, to introduce the client to a concept they couldn’t otherwise understand, to convey information, to help them with the process, and thereby give them a system where they could charge for the advice given,” Townsend said.
“Time will tell if that’s something advisers will value and get the benefit from.”
The program revolves around a key document called the estate planning guide and testamentary manual.
“Effectively this document allows the planner or adviser to sit with the client and help them understand the process as they go because there are advice guides at every step,” Townsend said.
“The adviser will become so familiar with the process once they use this resource half a dozen times, they’ll know in advance the issues they should be covering off with their clients.
“They’re not giving that advice, it’s coming from us as lawyers, but it effectively helps them to walk the client through both the facts and the strategies.”
In addition, professionals taking out a membership will be provided with access to webinars designed to improve their estate planning skills, online training resources, such as case studies and white papers, external communications support, including a marketing toolkit, and a regular estate planning newsletter to keep them abreast of the latest issues.
“Once you join EPAdvantage there are a raft of resources we provide to you to help you with your client relationships in terms of convincing them of the need for estate planning,” Townsend said.
“There are letters explaining why estate planning is necessary, there are case studies illustrating what happens if an estate planning strategy is not established correctly, and any amount of other resources, such as letters and advice guides needed.
“We provide as many resources as we can to help the adviser convince the client that estate planning is something that should not be set aside as being a nuisance or a compliance item, but is a crucial and integral part of the client’s wealth management strategy.”
