NEWS

Social media will become a vital tool for financial planners and advisers looking to win new business from the growing self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) sector, according to The SMSF Academy’s managing director Aaron Dunn.

Speaking at the Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) conference Mr Dunn said that online resources such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and LinkedIn will play an increasingly important role for advisers looking to attract younger, technology-savvy SMSF members.

Planned government reforms on how planners “scale” advice on topics such as retirement, nomination of beneficiaries and superannuation payments will also provide a unique opportunity for advisers to expand the services they offer to clients, Mr Dunn told the conference.

“These reforms mean that financial advice will be about planning for the entire life of a super fund, from the moment a person starts saving to how funds will be passed on to family,” Mr Dunn said.

“Financial advisers will not only have to find new ways to attract clients using social media tools, but also keep them engaged for the future. Using areas like blogs, webinars and Facebook, planners can connect with a broader audience and keep clients and prospects updated on their views.”

Mr Dunn argues that social tools like Facebook, which has more than 11 million members in Australia, can also help advisers to better understand their target audience and share their views. Sites such as Twitter can help advisers to communicate with users online while setting up a company blog can help planners to share their views on changes in the industry.

Mr Dunn pointed to a recent SPAA/Russell Intimate with SMSFs Survey (the survey) which indicated that trustees remain sceptical of financial planners and continue to rely on mainstream media when making investment decisions. The survey found that more than half of the trustees surveyed make the majority of financial decisions based on information sourced from financial and general media, including newspapers, magazines and/or websites.

The survey also found that SMSFs are increasingly attracting a younger demographic: some 13.7% of respondents aged 31-45 intend to establish an SMSF within the next two years, compared to 10.5% of the baby boomer generation.

“The media remains a much more heavily-used source of information for financial decision-making amongst both trustees and non-trustees than professional advisers and accountants,” Mr Dunn said.

“Financial planners need to have a strong web presence to be able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills around SMSFs to attract business and make themselves stand out from the crowd.”

Mr Dunn expects some of the key SMSF issues for 2012 to be:

• strategies to benefit from market volatility and a recovery in the global economy
• how limited recourse borrowing works to acquire a property
• benefits of moving to pension phase
• salary sacrifice
• contribution caps

About The SMSF Academy

The SMSF Academy is a specialist SMSF education and training provider.  The SMSF Academy aims to provide the most up-to-date, easily accessible, user-friendly, affordable and best quality online SMSF education for trustees and their professionals. The SMSF Academy also equips SMSF professionals with practical, web-based white label tools that help them attract and work more effectively and efficiently with their clients. The SMSF Academy is the brain child of Solicitor and Director of the SMSF Academy, Ian Glenister and Managing Director, Aaron Dunn, author of the SMSF blog, thedunnthing! and the only educator in the space to have been personally invited by the Chair of the Super System Review, Jeremy Cooper to share his views regarding the Phase Three Issues Paper on Structure, including SMSFs.

More Information:                                                          Media Contact:

www.thesmsfacademy.com.au                                            Julie Bennett, 64 Media 0407071121

                                                                                         julie@64media.com.au