Speaking in a recent BT Academy webinar, BT head of public policy and technical services Neil Sparks explained that under the safe harbour steps for the best interests duty, advisers are required to have the expertise needed on the subject matter sought by the client.
Where they don’t have this kind of specialist knowledge, Mr Sparks said the adviser is required to decline the advice.
With complex types of SMSF advice, he said it can be difficult for advisers to assess whether they do have the necessary expertise and competence to deal with the matter and what the role of the technical services team should be in providing support to the adviser.
Speaking in the same webinar, Kit Legal founder and head of legal Catherine Evans said while advisers may be able to deal with simpler scenarios involving SMSFs, this doesn’t necessarily mean they can deal with every SMSF scenario.
“It’s not black and white there. They might have knowledge of SMSF but there might be some really crazy scenarios where you decide ‘actually, this is outside of my leg now’. That’s where advisers need to work out whether they can supplement their fairly robust competence with some technical expertise,” she explained.
“That’s where a technical support services team comes in, [where the adviser] knows what they want to do but just wants to run a few things past someone.”
However, Ms Evans warned that this can go to the other extreme, where the adviser is outsourcing the whole piece of advice to a technical team and then just signing off on it.
“We do see in firms sometimes that an adviser will outsource to another adviser within the team but then put their name on the advice,” she said.
“The person signing off on that advice is the one responsible for it. They’re also the ones responsible for making sure that the client understands the advice but if you don’t fully understand it, then it’s really hard to ensure that the client fully understands that.”
Mr Sparks noted that ASIC in Report 337 warned advisers that if they don’t understand the advice they’re giving, then it’s inappropriate for them to give that advice.
ASIC gave the example of an adviser having inadequate knowledge about the roles and obligations of a trustee of an SMSF and it, therefore, being inappropriate for that adviser to advise a client on entering an SMSF, he said.
“So the technical services team is there to supplement the advice or the competence for that advice but not actually deliver it. There are all sorts of standards that would be breached there.”
