Meg's Musings - October 2023

We were excited to see that we’re finalists in four categories for the SMSF Adviser awards this year (fund administration, documents, actuarial certificates and education). To all those clients who took the time to give us a vote or two – thank you.

Of course we know intellectually that these awards don’t necessarily take the pressure off when it comes to all the things we want to do to keep improving. But they’re still a lovely way of reminding our team that their hard work is appreciated and does make a difference.

I was particularly pleased to see us nominated in every category for which we’re eligible – it does highlight Heffron’s uniqueness in being “Everything SMSF”.

And it’s timely. Our nomination in one of our categories (education) coincides with the launch of an entirely new webinar series that is designed to meet a need we’ve never tried to address before.

But before I get into what we’re doing, I should thank Treasury for making sure we stay on our toes by releasing draft legislation for the proposed new tax on members with more than $3m in super today. We’ve analysed it and have some initial comments in our . If I had to summarise it, I’d say the Government has more or less stuck to their guns and so the new tax will remain highly controversial. I suspect many wealthier SMSF members would happily pay more tax but will justifiably feel aggrieved at the structure and the extent to which they’ve been demonised as somehow stealing tax money from the rest of the community.

It will certainly give us plenty to talk about in the coming months!

I suspect it will be a topic at one of our future webinars in our new series. But with a different lens.

If you read this newsletter, you probably have more than a passing interest in super and SMSFs. You may also come to some of the many training events we run and you probably spend a lot of time talking to clients about their SMSFs.

But you’ll have colleagues in your firm who are nowhere near as interested as you are. Perhaps it’s because they have clients with SMSFs but someone else (maybe even your team) looks after those funds. Or maybe they just don’t have clients with SMSFs – but of course they will still have clients with super. Whether they know it or not, both these groups do need strong super knowledge, it just has to be quite targeted.

Our new series – Super in 60 – is for them.

We want to help your colleagues keep up to date with just the things they really need to know about super and SMSFs. It will be headlines rather than the detail (although of course we have plenty of comprehensive education for those who want to dig deeper). It won’t take long (60 minutes every 6 months). But it will give an overview of the top key risks and opportunities they should have in mind when talking to any client with super. Imagine how many more clients (with SMSFs or not) might take advantage of downsizer contributions or recontribution opportunities if their trusted accountant / adviser just knew to ask the right questions?

We’re launching this new series today and the first webinar will be held on 16 November. You can find out more here.

And the best part – for our actuarial certificate clients, it’s absolutely free, for an unlimited number of people in your firm. They won’t know us and we won’t know them. So if this applies to your firm please spread the word. You might also mention that even if they don’t feel they want to know anything more about super, the very worst thing that can happen is they get some well delivered CPD! We genuinely think this benefits you as well. It will make your colleagues more aware of the risks and opportunities – they’ll know when to bring you in.

In case you’re worried that there’s no specific education in this for you – don’t worry, Heffron has many more plans for our next 12 months that will be highly relevant for you. Check out our upcoming events here.