The changes to SMSF legislation and accountants' licensing requirements have been deemed a compliance burden. One key service provider in the sector believes there are significant opportunities for accountants who are willing to be on the front foot.
Speaking at the Beating Future Shock event by Class earlier this week, sales director Joel Smith discussed the number of changes that have recently occurred in the world of SMSFs.
“Firstly, we've seen a significant increase in the compliance burden associated with SMSFs, particularly in the area of access to accurate data and real-time reporting,” Mr Smith said.
“Hand in hand with the increase in the compliance burden has come the largest and most complex legislative changes in the last 10 years. Two super reform bills have come through; they introduced about 12 different measures, most of which begin in July this year.”
On top of this is the requirement for accountants to get licensed in order to provide SMSF advice, which many have delayed applying for.
However, Mr Smith said it’s not all bad news.
“It’s not all bleak; we've got some upsides as well. There are some positive reasons to be quite excited about SMSF and the opportunity to transform that part of the business,” he said.
“[SMSFs] need assistance to decide first the amount of information they're being bombarded with; they need to be able to make appropriate choices.”
Not only do SMSFs need advice before and after the legislative changes come in to effect on 1 July this year, the number of SMSFs is also increasing.
“We've seen consistent and strong growth in the number of SMSFs being generated each year. The interest in the market therefore continues to rise,” he said.
“So the opportunity is there if you can grow in a scalable way.”
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