The proportion of SMSF trustees with unmet advice needs intending to approach planners and other guides such as specialist super consultants has fallen from 70 per cent in 2014 down to 54 per cent this year.

The proportion of SMSF trustees turning to accountants providing tax advice and accountants providing investment advice, on the other hand, has increased from 50 per cent to 52 per cent.

The survey results also indicated that the proportion of SMSFs using a financial planner declined again, from 41 per cent in 2014 to 36 per cent this year.

Mr Peker said the main areas of unmet advice needs that SMSFs were willing to pay for were typically in strategy-related areas such as inheritance and estate planning, SMSF pension strategies, age pension, offshore investing and asset protection.

The interesting thing about the results, he said, is that accountants do not traditionally provide advice in these types of areas.

“The area that more accountants provide advice on than financial advisers is tax planning, and you would expect that, but all the other areas financial advisers really stand out on, especially things like advice on ETFs, investing for regular income, retirement income product selection and protecting assets and income against market falls,” he said.

“So accountants can actually win from partnering with financial planners to provide a more holistic offering to their clients who have all these unmet advice needs.”

Mr Peker said the positive news is that financial planners are working closely with accountants.

“We now find that only 16 per cent of SMSF advisers don’t have any accountant relationships, down from 22 per cent in the previous year,” he said.

“It’s really important for them to work together but we generally find they’re moving in this direction.”