SPAA backs calls for specialist SMSF training

Calls by the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) for financial advisers to undertake specialist self-managed super fund (SMSF) training if they advise in this area has received a tick of approval from the SMSF Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA).

SPAA said it is particularly pleased with the recommendation that the minimum training standard should be lifted to an Australian Qualifications Framework level seven bachelor degree, saying this is what SPAA has always pushed for.

SPAA director of technical professional standards Graeme Colley is happy the PJC has identified SMSF advice as a specialist field.

"The proposal that specialist SMSF education be undertaken by those providing advice on SMSFs, in addition to satisfying core competencies for financial advice, is one of the key recommendations that SPAA made to the PJC," Colley said.

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Colley is also pleased the PJC has recommended that the term ‘general advice' should be renamed as ‘product and sales information', while personal advice should be renamed ‘financial advice' in the Corporations Act 2001.

"This will give consumers a clearer understanding of the type of advice they are receiving and how it meets their financial advice needs," Colley said.

The PJC said the term product and sales information "more closely reflects the nature of the information that is currently given to the consumer under the term ‘general advice'".

It also said the government should bring forward legislation that safeguards the titles financial adviser and financial planner, and necessitate that only those who are registered as a financial adviser can use the title.