SPAA

Superannuation

Specialised services offering to wrap up SMSF was not an adverse trend but a sign of the maturing of the SMSF sector....

Superannuation

Associations should set CPD standards: SPAA

Professional associations should take over setting CPD standards if adviser standards are to improve, SPAA argued. ...

Superannuation

Retirement products need lift to better fit system

The standard of retirement income products needs to be lifted to that of SMSFs to fit in with a well-working retirement system...

Superannuation

Accountants top planners as SMSF service providers

Self-Managed Superannuation Fund service providers with origins in accounting tend to be bigger and more profitable than those that started out as financial planner or ad...

Financial planning

FSI education benchmark applauded, but exam questioned

Industry advocate groups have broadly welcomed the Financial System Inquiry (FSI) interim report’s vow to lift the education bar for advisers, but one has questioned the ...

Policy & Regulation

Cormann’s FOFA reforms plan gets mixed reaction

Industry lobbyists are giving the Federal Government’s decision to plough ahead with the implementation of some elements of the Future of Financial Advice reforms a mixed...

Financial planning

Conflicted remuneration should be defined in law

SPAA claims that explanatory statements to FOFA amendments will be ineffective and best interest duty and conflicted remuneration should be defined within legislation....

Superannuation

SPAA’s tax-time warning

SMSF trustees need to implement their financial strategies by 30 June to get the best outcomes for their funds, the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia claims....

Superannuation

ATO calls time on laggard SMSFs

ATO will begin action against SMSFs yet to lodge returns and cancel inactive funds...

Superannuation

SMSFs - are they still worth it?

With the increased scrutiny of self-managed super funds (SMSF) from the regulator, the soon-to-be-introduced penalty regime for trustees and the increasing diligence of S...

Superannuation

Govt must weigh up cost of age pension rise: SPAA

Flow-on effects of lifting the pension age to 70 could see older Australians grow reliant on other social security benefits, says SPAA....

Editorial

Planning for post-retirement outcomes

With post-retirement planning emerging as a major issue in 2014, Andrew Gale argues that there needs to be less focus on products and more focus on advice-based solutions...

Superannuation

SPAA maintains argument for regulatory status quo for SMSFs

SPAA has used its submission to the Financial Systems Inquiry to restate its claim that SMSFs are appropriately regulated. ...

Superannuation

SPAA backs plucking out 'bad apples’ from advice sector

SPAA supports ASIC’s drive for tougher measures to tackle the 'bad apples’ of the financial services industry....

Superannuation

SPAA urges unlocking of SMSF capital

SPAA has urged the Financial System Inquiry to look at ways the growing SMSF capital pool can be unlocked to help fund productive Australian investment that benefits the ...