The annual SMSF Service Provider Awards, in its fourth year, identified the businesses of influence that are making serious headway with trustees via their advisers. Krystine Lumanta and Daniel Paperny reveal how this year’s winners achieved a spot at the top.
SMSFs now hold over $620 billion in assets, according to the latest ATO data. The tax office revealed the number of SMSFs had hit 577,236 and the total number of members had reached 1,087,841 as at 30 June 2016.
This year, in conjunction with selfmanagedsuper, industry research provider CoreData added two more award categories – best infrastructure provider and best innovator – taking the total to 16 accolades across all areas of SMSF products and services.
Adviser commentary about their picks for best performers highlighted ease of use, excellent service and good communication as top differentiators when it came to the product or service.
On 1 September, during the presentation ceremony held at New South Wales Parliament House in Sydney, CoreData principal Andrew Inwood said while he expected continued SMSF growth, that momentum wouldn’t be as strong as in previous years.
Therefore providers of SMSF investments and services needed to find ways to better engage and retain trustees who were already in the system, Inwood said.
This sentiment was echoed in CoreData’s most recent “Keys to Growth Report”, which found 33.3 per cent of financial planners believed there would be no change to the rate of the SMSF industry’s growth over the next 12 months, while 31.9 per cent of accountants believed industry growth would slow.
“What’s happening in the SMSF world isn’t a surprise to anyone and the nature of competition amongst everyone here is going to change in the next few years,” Inwood said on the night.
“The driver of funds into this sector is shifting and changing, so the funds already within the sector will probably be your biggest engine of growth in the next five to seven years.”
In this special feature, selfmanagedsuper speaks to the winners of the awards in the SMSF adviser-voted categories.
