Brought to you by Capstone.

Maintaining your status as your clients’ trusted adviser depends largely on the depth and range of the advice and services you provide. More often than not, clients are looking for peace of mind; secure in the knowledge that your professional guidance is right for their financial needs and circumstances. 

Continuing to meet your clients’ needs into the future involves more than just providing factual information, it requires the ability to provide your clients with meaningful advice. 

What SMSF services are you providing?

Consider the conversations you currently hold with clients about superannuation, SMSFs and insurance. In the current regulatory environment, the nature of your discussions with your client may be limited to fact-based information such as taxation (unless you are self-licensed or an authorised representative of an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensee).  

Without authorization, or your own licence, your conversation can only go so far and you are limited in your ability to provide your client with more meaningful advice that could really make a difference to their financial position. 

If you don’t have authorisation and your client asks: “What should I do?” Or: “What do you think?”, you may find you’re legally unable to provide the answer they’re looking for, which can be a frustrating experience for both you and your client.

The benefits of advice

Consider the advantages of being able to offer your client a greater scope of advice, and the difference this could make to your client’s financial position. For example, you may wish to be able to:

• Make recommendations to establish or close an interest in an SMSF.
• Make recommendations regarding your client’s superannuation arrangements, such as making contributions or pensions.
• Discuss recourse borrowing arrangements (should this be of interest to your client or a strategy you wish to recommend).
• Discuss transition to retirement strategies with your client.
• Discuss retirement planning strategies that may be appropriate to your client’s retirement planning objectives.
• Discuss estate planning strategies.

As you can see, this significantly expands the depth and scope of the conversations you can hold with your clients. It allows you to move your client conversations beyond fact-based taxation/business financials of the past into assisting your clients with their wealth management needs for the future. 

It also unlocks new opportunities for increased revenue that follows from expanding your service offering. A prerequisite to providing this level of advice is to become an authorised representative of an AFS licensee. Capstone www.smsf-capstonefp.com.au can provide more information on authorisation.

To find out more about authorisation, please contact Capstone, one of Australia’s leading privately-owned licensees on 1300 306 900, or visit www.smsf-capstonefp.com.au Capstone Financial Planning ABN 24 093 733 969. AFSL/ACL No.223135