Opportunities in the SMSF space is a topic not new to brokers - but are the opportunities really being taken advantage of? On this week's Broker TV we talk to Richard Chesworth from Macquarie Bank who says better collaboration between brokers and financial advisors is a relationship worth investing in.
Video transcript below:
Stephanie Zillman, Australian Broker TV
Stephanie Zillman: Opportunities in the SMSF space is a topic not new to brokers. But are the opportunities really being taken advantage of? Richard Chesworth from Macquarie Bank says better collaboration between brokers and financial advisors is a relationship worth investing in.
Richard Chesworth, Senior Manager, Macquarie Adviser Services
Richard Chesworth: It’s a two way street. So, well first of all the clients need to be filled upon and the experience overall is a lot better. The client can speak to a planner to see whether it’s suitable. So you might find a broker has a client come in and the transaction may not be suitable, that broker can’t provide advice, but they can ask the right questions. In asking the right questions, if the client can’t answer them in an appropriate manner, they’ve got the referral partners to introduce their clients to. Likewise if you can display as a broker that you understand this area, financial planners and accountants have clients asking for this need to fulfilled. So if they can see you can fulfil on it, they will be delivering the clients through to you.
Stephanie Zillman: Borrowing to invest using SMSFs is an area with strict rules of compliance. Chesworth says the need to upskill can’t be overestimated and knowledge sharing meetings are a good place to start.
Richard Chesworth: It’s not an area to cut corners in, it is a specialist form of lending. So brokers should be upskilling themselves to understand the key components of the transaction and to make sure they get that right. Our focus here is really helping the brokers through that process. We are providing tools in that base to assist their, and further knowledge share sessions to help them to determine what may be more appropriate, whether it’s inside or outside super, so they can ask those questions and again if the client can’t answer, refer them to the right partners.
Stephanie Zillman: A key takeaway for Chesworth is that the stakes can be high. In some cases, it’s a client’s entire retirement fund. For this reason, due diligence is paramount.
Richard Chesworth: We are talking about people’s retirement funds here and so the upskilling there, we’ve got a base here, an education series or a knowledge sharing series of what we have seen and what we have experienced. We are providing the tools to help them understand the market better. So we’ve got everything from a limited recourse buying calculator to other sites which is a lot of information for brokers. But upskilling is key, it is a specialist form of lending and we need to get that right.
Stephanie Zillman: This is Stephanie Zillman reporting for Australian Broker TV.
