The Self-Managed Independent Superannuation Funds Association (SISFA) has revealed it will expand its profile in the SMSF industry by stepping outside of its usual technical realm and become much more relevant on a trustee level.
SISFA managing director Mike Goodall said while the body was known for its legislative and regulatory analysis, the provision of that technical education was restricted to a limited audience.
“What SISFA’s been successful with in the past is providing our interpretation of legislative or tax law change and giving feedback at that level directly to the ATO and the regulators,” Goodall told selfmanagedsuper.
“Currently we have a narrow technical sphere and so we need to get outside of that.
“What I think is missing, which SISFA would like to play a role in, is how does that translate down through to the trustee level, so how do we assist financial planners, auditors and accountants to be able to interpret those changes at a consumable level down to their clients.”
SISFA was considering how to create a message that was consumable to trustee members based on its interaction with government, the regulators and the ATO, he revealed.
“That’s an area I think that’s yet to be well catered for and a challenge we have in front of us to address,” he said.
“We need to raise our profile and explain its relevance to various audiences in the marketplace and tailor our messages to those audiences.
“The plan for SISFA is to broaden its relevance to the SMSF industry, but we don’t want to duplicate [the other SMSF associations] so our vision for SISFA is to build relevance at the first level, which are the gatekeepers, and then at the consumer level, for trustees.”
SISFA will hold its seventh annual SMSF Forum in Melbourne on 23 October, with content to concentrate on two themes this year.
“In previous years, the forum’s covered the impact of regulatory change, but there hasn’t been much of that this year, so the themes are around advice for practitioners advising trustees,” Goodall said.
“Because there hasn’t really been much legislative change this year, it’s all about interpretation and advice for the future.
“So we’ll hold sessions on retirement strategies, what should people be doing and the perils and pitfalls around that, so more on the financial advice issues around retirement planning and the options available to trustees once they go into retirement mode.
“The second theme of the conference is around the tax regulations that you need to be aware of, what are the duties and specific needs trustees need to be aware of from an auditing, capital management and tax regulation point of view.”
Goodall became SISFA managing director in August.
Prior to joining the association, he was head of distribution at MetLife Australia and regional head of bank distribution for MetLife Asia, based in Hong Kong.
He was also ANZ Financial Planning general manager from 2004 to 2007.
