Important steps

SMSF Association (SMSFA) chief executive Peter Burgess is not only a pioneer of the self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) sector but also sees the true potential in every person he's engaged with throughout his career. Although his story appeared to have been set in stone, Burgess' foray into the SMSF sector was quite the opposite.

Outside his current career, Burgess says he would have chosen to become a lawyer, leveraging the technical knowledge he had gained, or an anthropologist, due to his interest in the development of societies and cultures while studying at university.

So, when he was a fresh graduate completing his economics degree, he was unsure how his future would unfold - that was until he was given the opportunity to work in super.

"I was in my final year of an economics degree and National Mutual were hiring economics graduates to work in their corporate super division," he says.

"It wasn't my preferred career destination but at the time there weren't many other jobs going for economics graduates, so I applied and got the job."

The internship was an eye-opener for him, realising helping those in need was a greater fulfilment than anything else.

He was then offered a role at Tower Trust (now known as Australian Executor Trustees) with a team overseeing the small funds
division.

"That was my first foray into the small fund world," he says.

"That experience really opened some new opportunities for me. It enabled me to leverage the technical expertise and knowledge that I built over the previous decade to a whole new world of small private investor super funds.

"It also exposed me to many different types of professions that I hadn't worked with previously, not only financial planners, but accountants, auditors, estate planning lawyers, who have a real thirst for knowledge and for continuous improvement. Hence, it's been a really rewarding career."

When he transitioned to National Mutual Retirement Fund, now operated by Resolution Life, Burgess was working on a team responsible for the administration process of a very large company to find benefits in the schemes over a prolonged period of time, a role he adored but also gave a lot of blood, sweat and tears to.

"Over the years, many of those companies have merged with other companies. Defined Benefit schemes were incredibly complex for investors. It used to take us hours to manually calculate someone's resignation or retirement benefit, factoring in many different accrual multiples and calculating the different tax components," he said.

"You really did need to develop a very good understanding of super and tax legislation which later became the foundation of my technical knowledge."

Working in that team provided Burgess with a solid foundation in the technical aspects of super. Fast forward to the late 1980s, Burgess hit a crossroads in his career, unsure where the next journey would take him. He spent a long stint at AMP's SMSF division, SuperConcepts, which has since been snapped up by Pemba Capital Partners.

Burgess found his home at the SMSFA in 2017 and subsequently succeeded John Maroney as the organisation's chief executive in March 2023, a major career milestone.

Now working for close to 40 years in the sector, he believes the feedback he has received has been quite rewarding.

"The super industry is very dynamic, and it's growing very quickly," he says

"I think it's a funny career, and not one that is easy to explain to others outside the industry - I still remember my six-year-old daughter having to explain to her class what her dad does and she said I was a teacher.

"I thought that was a pretty good way of describing what I do as I have spent most of my career working with professionals and helping them to understand what I do."

However, all those years of hard work would go to waste if Burgess did not maintain his disciplinary lifestyle.

He prides himself on his "office tour" every morning as a great way to engage with staff and colleagues, and has never skipped a route since he started.

Another reason why the SMSFA has become so efficient is the unique method they use to ensure everyone is on track to achieve their goals.

At the beginning of the year, Burgess gathers his team to set several goals for each of them to work towards; a method that rarely fails and further strengthens everyone in the organisation.

"The plan is to achieve shared goals and intelligence, which allows us to see our own strength and weaknesses, as well as to manage emotions," he says.

"Articulating a clear vision and setting achievable goals is important. It's amazing how innovative team members become when they have a clear understanding of what the team is trying to achieve.

"For me the most important thing is having alignment between your personal values and those of your organisation. Achieving this is incredibly powerful, it drives passion, enthusiasm, and belief even when things are not going well."

The approach has been very effective and Burgess says it is rare to see anyone fall behind their targets.

Burgess is also heavily involved in advocacy, especially against some of the more controversial policies, including Division 296 and the Compensation as the Last Resort Scheme (CSLR), and says he will continue to embrace that culture as he moves forward.

He says the sector will continue to grow exponentially, and it's important as a leader to steer the ship in the right direction.

"The super industry, as a self-managed sector, is very dynamic, subject to constant change, and there's always something to learn," he says.

"I speak to my members just about every day, and every single one of them has a different approach to the way they do things.

"Their practice is slightly different to one another, and by learning that, it enables me to keep growing, improving, and those are my core values."

He also highlights the improved quality of advice across the super sector, which will benefit the SMSF sector.

"Consumers have greater access to high-quality SMSF advice, compared to where we were 20 years ago. We've come a long way, but there's still more work to be done," he says. fs