The SMSF Academy is rebranding as Smarter SMSF in a bid to better reflect its expanded service offering, including its SMSF documents offering.

The federal government has implemented various measures in the past two years to ensure public confidence in the banking and financial services industry, but a royal commission was ultimately unavoidable, according to Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar.

Legal document provider Topdocs has announced an end-to-end integration with Xero Practice Manager (XPM) to enable data sharing between the two platforms.

The SMSF Association will make submissions to the banking royal commission if requested despite the sector’s exclusion from the inquiry’s terms of reference.

Australian Securities Exchange-traded corporate bond investment provider XTB has reported considerable outperformance for its fixed-rate portfolios when compared against the credit index and comparative bond exchange-traded fund (ETF) market in 2017.

Strong quarterly net inflows for the second quarter of the 2018 financial year have helped drive Hub24’s funds under administration (FUA) to $7 billion.

The SMSF sector’s returns matching Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated fund returns during 2015/16 demonstrates the hard work of SMSF specialists who advise many members about their investments, the SMSF Association has said.

Hub24 has announced enhancements to its platform, including a superannuation contributions tracker and an integrated records of advice (ROA) solution for advisers.

Verante Financial Planning has boosted its education efforts through its Financial Knowledge Centre, which includes a comprehensive module on SMSFs.