“We felt there was a need to ensure that if our members were going to be involved in recommending finance to SMSFs, they really needed to understand what they could and couldn’t do and how they could work with the other professionals involved,” he said.

The association is now offering a free trust deed and bare trust to brokers on purchase of the course for use in a personal SMSF fund or to become familiar with the documentation.

“It’s just so that [brokers] have got a good understanding of what they look like, what is in them and how they operate,” Mr Naylor said.

Mr Naylor also said there has been a “fair bit of interest” in the SMSF space generally from brokers.

“More than 3,000 SMSFs are being established each month in Australia and, with the proper training, mortgage brokers have the opportunity to deepen their relationships with clients through managing the process of gaining a loan for clients’ SMSFs,” he added.

“To be in it, you really have to understand what you’re talking about, you can’t just put your toe in the water and fiddle with it, you really have to be [an] expert on the issue.”