SMEs a prime opportunity

Small-to-medium enterprise owners (SMEs) need to be educated about what financial planners do, according to Ross Cameron, former Liberal MP and director of Cameron Research Group.

Key findings of a focus group discussions and telephone survey of 775 small businesses were a mistrust of government superannuation regulations and an obsession with control over personal investments.

Research also uncovered confusion among business owners about the role of financial advice, with only 38 per cent of SME employers using a financial planner.

According to Cameron, these attitudes are largely due to scepticism about the importance of financial advice and concern fuelled by media reports of scams involving financial advisers, and represent significant opportunities for advisers to target SME employers.

Speaking at a recent gathering of financial planners from various dealer groups, Cameron discussed the outcomes of the most recent study, which were released in June this year.

On the issue of corporate super, he said employers at the bigger end of the SME space were largely disengaged, paying the minimum 9 per cent Superannuation Guarantee contribution with little thought about the investment strategies or other decisions of fund managers. “In terms of their corporate fund É they don’t want to be hassled by that, they don’t want to have much involvement.”

Cameron also pointed to figures indicating that only 22 per cent of employees have executed their right to choose since the introduction of choice of fund as evidence that SME employers could be a key driver of corporate super choice. “The buying power still rests with the employer,” he said.