Yesterday the SMSF Professionals’ Association announced it will rebrand to reflect its ‘all-embracing” leadership of the entire SMSF sector, not just practitioners.
A number of SPAA members – speaking to ifa and sister title SMSF Adviser on condition of anonymity – questioned whether the decision may be a precursor to the introduction of trustee members, with one suggesting few benefits to the current membership.
Similarly, SPAA member and Quantum Financial principal Tim Mackay took to social media to raise questions about the process behind the move.
“Don’t know what it means to be honest. Doesn’t feel like they’ve brought the members with them on this – if there was a call for member discussion I don’t recall it,” Mr Mackay wrote in a public statement on LinkedIn.
“Maybe a good call but you could argue it’s a captain’s pick.”
A subsequent tweet clarified he believes the name change to be a “smart move”, but added there is “no downside” to consulting with members.
However, the captain in question, association chief executive and co-founder Andrea Slattery, said the membership was consulted and that there is no change in remit or strategy, just name.
“There is no mischief in this, it’s just an evolution and a way in which people can actually intuitively find specialists and intuitively find an association to represent them,” Ms Slattery said.
“We are a professional association, we always have been a professional association, there is nothing now to question whether we are a professional association,” she said.
Asked a number of times whether the body will introduce trustee or consumer members in the future, Ms Slattery responded: “We do not currently have any trustee members”.
I’ve been a SPAA member since inception, was amongst the first to get the qualification and since then, around 10 years ago, have paid member fees every year but had no personal or business benefit whatsoever. I’m sure they do lots behind the scenes like the FPA do and I’m sure they offer lots of valuable services like technical, etc, but I get all of these needs covered via licencee. Money from SPA and FPA membership over my career could have knocked 5 years off my working life if it was instead salary sacrificed to super (I’m mid 30’s – think of the compounding!).
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, herminator.
It is a good group, but both Julie and Herminator are right – run by the CEO for the CEO and we have to pay for that in time and CPD dollars
liam, there are tech services and facebook is linkedin are not exclusive to spaa. i guess if you want to pay for this, knock your self out.
Wow Herminator, my experience has been the exact opposite. I have found the community spirit and the multi-discipline member base within the SMSF Association (SPAA) invaluable.
The LinkedIn group alone is worth its weight in goal to bounce ideas or confirm strategies from all points of view. I have saved clients a fortune and my self some embarrassment by gettign input from knowledgeable member son there.
In the Sydney and NSW Wales chapters we have moved to more peer to peer or panel discussion at the chapter regular meetings rather than just a presentation.
when I get a sticky question from colleagues I point them to TECHHQ service and Graeme and Jordan really go beyond the norm to provide comprehensive guidance.
So with due respect I think you may not be exploring what is on offer. You can only build a successful association with participation. The SMSF Association wins hands down for me and that why I volunteer for the local committee.
This Association has never consulted with staff, management nor the Board but the CEO surrounds herself with yes men. She owns the association and it is her way or the highway.It is definitely a captain’s pick and a political way to gain more membership in hard times.
SPAA is an irrelevant self serving body. As a former member there was no support except for conferences and mandatory cpd (for a fee). SPAA is another invented body for the fee generation gravy train.