Terms & Conditions

This website is operated by the SMSF Association Ltd (ABN: 67 103 739 617).

Your use of our website and/or any other services that we provide in connection with our website (Site) is governed by these terms and conditions (Terms). By using the Site (including creating an account on the Site), you are deemed to have read, understood and accepted these Terms which incorporate any other terms referred to in these Terms including but not limited to our Privacy Policy and any notices or disclaimers. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must cease accessing and using our Site immediately as you are not authorised to use the Site.

The contents of the Site should not be construed as the provision of financial advice and we exclude all liability in this respect. We are not responsible for any use or misinterpretation of, or omissions from, the content on the Site, and you accept any risks associated with failure to seek proper and qualified professional advice.

Definitions and interpretation

In these Terms:

  • ‘SMSF Association’ means SMSF Association Ltd (ABN 67 103 739 617).  ‘We’, ‘our’ and ‘us’ also mean SMSF Association;
  • ‘service’ includes the Site, the interface, user system, trade marks, information, documents, products, education content, technical content, event and the services which we provide to you and includes ancillary services, including online help/questions and online communication;
  • ‘document’ means a document or material which is available through our service;
  • ‘you’ means the person using our service, including a person using our service as agent of another person in which case ‘you’ means the agent or the agent’s principal, or both the agent and the agent’s principal;
  • the singular includes the plural and vice-versa; and
  • a reference to currency is a reference to Australian dollars.

Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy applied to all users of our Site and our services and forms part of these Terms.

Eligibility

To be eligible to use our services, you must be able to enter into a legally binding contract under relevant laws. Where you are using our services on behalf of another person or entity, the individual actually using our services is deemed to accept these Terms on the entity’s or person’s behalf (as the case may be) as well as in your own personal capacity. You may not transfer or sell your account to another party.

You may only use our services for lawful purposes and must ensure that your use of our services do not breach any laws that apply to you.

If you apply for an account on our Site (Account):

  • you are deemed to accept these Terms by submitting your application;
  • you warrant that all information you submit to us is correct, complete, up-to-date and not misleading or deceptive;
  • you must immediately amend or notify us of any information you have submitted that does not (or ceases to) comply with these Terms;
  • you must reasonably safeguard your login details and notify us immediately if you consider they have been obtained or used by a third party without your authorisation; and
  • you acknowledge and agree that you will be solely responsible for any acts or omissions in using your account unless and until you provide notification to us that your login details have been used without your authorisation.

In using our services, you must not directly or indirectly:

  • engage in any conduct that is in our opinion illegal, fraudulent, defamatory, abusive, offensive, would infringe another person’s rights or that we otherwise deem to be inappropriate or a misuse of our services or documents; or
  • cause anything to occur that may disrupt the availability of our services or engage in hacking or attempt to gain unauthorised access to any service, and you agree to immediately notify us if you become aware of any vulnerability in our services.

We may accept or refuse any application for an account on our Site in our absolute discretion. We may suspend or terminate an account at any time and for any reason. If your account is terminated, you are prohibited from re-applying for an account unless we notify you otherwise in writing.

Intellectual property

Unless specified otherwise, all right, title and interest in copyright and other intellectual property rights in all materials, documents and services on our Site (including information, text, graphics, photographs, designs, layouts, software, documents, trade marks, logos, animations and/or sound recordings) (Material) belong to or are licensed by us. The copyright and other proprietary rights in such Material is protected by Australian and international intellectual property laws.

You must not:

  • use, sell, assign, rent, sub-licence or otherwise deal with the Material in any way except as expressly permitted in these Terms;
  • transmit the Material (whether by email or otherwise) to any third party;
  • display the Material on any computer, system or network which permits electronic access to the Material by more than one user at a time;
  • modify, merge, adapt or translate the Material; or
  • copy any Material onto a website operated by yourself or any third party.

For the avoidance of doubt, the above restrictions do not seek to restrict the holder of an Account from:

  • using the services or the documents in accordance with the Licence; or
  • using the site, or allowing one or more of the Account holder’s employees to access and use the Site, in the ordinary and intended manner.

We may, from time to time, expressly exclude any restrictions on the use of the Material by notice in writing to you in our absolute discretion. For example, we may permit you to create a hyperlink to the Site from Facebook.

You may only use our trade marks (whether registered or unregistered) in connection with printing a single copy of the Site for your personal and non-commercial use, or otherwise with our written consent.

Licence to use our services and documents

Subject to the conditions specified below and in consideration for your payment of the fees associated with our services, we grant you a non-exclusive and non-transferable licence (which may not be sublicensed) to use the services and documents you ordered using our service for your own personal use and on the terms and conditions below (Licence). We may immediately terminate the Licence if you breach a material obligation contained in these Terms.

In relation to your use of our service and documents you order, you agree that:

  • you must not use any part of the documents in connection with creating another document;
  • you must not use any part of the services for any purpose except the specific purpose for which they were provided;
  • you must not copy any part of the documents for any purpose except in relation to the transaction for which they were ordered;
  • you must not modify the services or documents in any way after they are sent to you;
  • you must not interfere with, alter or attempt to copy or reproduce any part of our service or the documents you order;
  • you must not incorporate any part of our service in any other program, system or document creation package; and
  • you must not represent that the documents ordered using our service were created by your own resources, or those of a third party (other than our resources or those of anyone else who signs-off and endorses for us the primary documents from which your documents are generated).

Our acknowledgements

Subject to these Terms, we acknowledge and agree:

  • we have taken reasonable steps to engage SMSF specialists to prepare our service, and documents to ensure that our services and documents are accurate and appropriate for the type of service you order;
  • all of your personal and billing information that is identifiable to you will be:
    • protected by security identification particulars; and
    • handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy; and
  • any services you order will, if relevant, be delivered electronically by email to the email address you have nominated.

We do not provide financial advice

We are not a professional adviser and we do not hold an Australian financial services licence under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (AFSL), and we cannot, and do not, give you any type of professional advice including financial, investment, legal or taxation advice.  The information provided on our Site, including in our services and documents, is general information only and does not constitute financial, investment, professional, legal or taxation advice. You agree that:

  • any information provided by our service or document is general information only, not advice;
  • we cannot and do not warrant that a service you decide to order is appropriate or suits your needs or the needs of any client;
  • we cannot and do not warrant that your use of our service is appropriate or suits your needs;
  • the legal, commercial and taxation effects of a service vary and a service’s suitability will therefore vary according to particular circumstances;
  • only you know the purpose for which you intend to apply a service you order, and we are not responsible for the choice you make regarding the service that you order; and
  • you are solely responsible for consulting with an appropriately qualified professional for advice concerning the suitability of a service you order.

SMSF Association Specialists

We may promote, or refer you to seek the advice or acquire services of, one of our SMSF Association Specialists (Specialist). You are not compelled to acquire any services from a Specialist. If you engage a Specialist, we are not liable for any loss you suffer associated with that engagement or the services provided by a Specialist.

Partners

We may promote, or refer you to, products or services of a third party (Partner).  A Partner may (but will not necessarily) hold an AFSL, depending on the nature of products or services the Partner offers. A Partner may from time to time pay us fees in return for this promotion or referral. The amount of the fee may depend on whether you agree to obtain products or services from the Partner.

A Partner may provide products or services which are complementary to our service — for example, in relation to online and face-to-face training events. You are not compelled to acquire any goods or services from a Partner. Regardless of whether or not you acquire goods or services from a Partner, we will still provide our products and services to you to the extent that we can without those complementary goods or services — for example, by allowing you to use our website, interface and user system to register as a customer and record your answers, and by storing your answers and sending you newsletter updates.

When you use a Partner’s services, a Partner’s website, or services available from a Partner’s website (Partner Services):

  • we are not responsible for those services or any information or hyperlinks contained on the Partner’s website;
  • we provide access to those services or the Partner’s website for convenience only and do not endorse the Partner or the Partner Services;
  • you access Partner Services at your own risk;
  • it is for you to decide whether you will, or should, rely on any Partner Services; and
  • you agree with us that you acknowledge the disclaimers made by that Partner (on its website or otherwise) and that you will comply with any terms and conditions applicable in relation to Partner Services.

Research

We may use data that is collected by the Site including for example:

  • SMSF Trustee financial behaviour
  • quantity of the services acquired by users;
  • the amount of services acquired by each user;
  • number of users on the Site.

This data will be collected on a de-identified and aggregated basis.

We will only use this data for research purposes in order to support public policy initiatives and to advocate for our members.

Social Media

We use a number of social media services to complement our delivery of services and to make users and other members of the public aware of our activities (Social Media Presences). The Social Media Presences include but are not limited to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Social Media Presences may occasionally be unavailable and we accept no responsibility due to network downtime. In relation to Social Media Presences, you acknowledge and agree:

  • you will not use any of our Social Media Presences or commonly used hashtags (e.g., #smsfassoc) or handles to promote services without our prior written approval;
  • our Social Media Presences do not provide professional advice of any kind and use of any information from our Social Media Presences is solely at your own risk and without liability to us of any kind;
  • we do not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify or agree with the comments, opinions or statements posted by users/members on our Social Media Presences. Any information or material placed online by users, including advice and opinions, is the view and responsibility of those users and does not necessarily represent our views;
  • comments and messages on our Social Media Presences may be ‘post-moderated’, this means that comments will be published automatically and may be reviewed by us after publication. While we review public comments on a regular basis, there may be times when inappropriate or offensive posts or comments that do not meet the terms of use appear before they can be removed. We do not accept any liability for such posts; and
  • Links to external websites and other third-party social media presences from our Social Media Presences are provided as a convenience to users only and such sites and associated content are not under our control. The inclusion of any link (or retweet) on our Social Media Presences does not imply our endorsement of that website, content, social media presence, service or person. We are not responsible for the content or reliability of links, or for any loss or inconvenience arising from their use.

Rights of an Account holder/member

If you create an Account on the Site, you are granted access to use the Site in accordance with the Licence. An Account or membership to SMSF Connect does not grant you any:

  • voting rights within the SMSF Association;
  • rights to influence or dictate any agenda or public policy initiatives that we may pursue; and
  • right of access to the services we provide to SMSF Association professional members.

For the avoidance of doubt, we reserve the right to exclude the holder of an Account from services that are intended for SMSF Association professional members.

How you pay us

Our standard arrangement is for you to pay us online by credit card through our merchant facility using Stripe at the time you order a service or service. Our system will transfer you to that site when you click the relevant button. Upon payment completion, the system should return you to the relevant page on our website at the relevant time.

We may, in our absolute discretion, provide alternative payment options, including payment by invoice for high volume users.

Pricing

Prices are subject to change without notice. Current charges are displayed for all items that are in your shopping cart at the checkout on our Site.  We reserve the right to change, modify, add or discontinue any feature of any of our services at any time, including content, hours of availability, pricing, and/or equipment required for access.

The Site and other websites

Each time you login to our Site, or order a service or document from us, you agree to the then current version of these Terms. When you place your order, we will provide you with the current version of these Terms and, to order, you must click to accept those Terms.

We do not warrant the accuracy or appropriateness of the contents of our website.  We do not warrant that the operation of our service will be uninterrupted or that our service is virus free or error free. We do not warrant or represent that our services will be accessible by your or available at any particular time or at all. The information and commentary on our Site is general in nature only and may contain hyperlinks, frames, and pointers to other websites. We are not responsible for any information or other hyperlinks contained in these websites which are provided for your convenience only.  We do not endorse any third party websites and you access these websites at your own risk.  It is for you to decide whether these websites should be relied upon.

You may not use the Site to:

  • transmit or post any message, information, data, text, software, images or other materials (User Material) that is libelous, defamatory, harassing, obscene, pornographic, threatening, an invasion of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, illegal, or which we consider, in our absolute discretion, to be objectionable or infringes the rights of any other party ;
  • place or transmit any User Material which contains a computer virus, worm or any other computer code which may adversely affect the Site, performance or functionality of the Site or any other website, software, system or equipment of ours or any other person or entity;
  • impersonate any person or entity or to falsely state or to otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
  • post or transmit any User Material that you do not have a right to reproduce, display or transmit or that infringes the rights of any person or entity;
  • use any device, software, or routine that interferes with or attempts to interfere with the proper functionality of the Site;
  • attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of the software that makes up the Site or the Materials or for the purpose of creating derivative works from the Site or the Materials; and
  • without our approval, distribute or otherwise publish any User Material containing any solicitation of funds, promotion, advertising or solicitation for goods or services.

Disclaimer, indemnity and liability

We do not exclude or limit any provision of any statute (including the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) where to do so would contravene that statute or cause any part of these Terms to be void.

We provide our Site on an “as-is” basis, and without any warranty, representation, condition or guarantee, express or implied, except to the extent that we are specifically required to provide such warranties, representations, conditions or guarantees under applicable law.

Our liability to you for any breach of any implied warranty, representation, condition or guarantee the exclusion of which would cause any part of these Terms to be void is limited to any one of (at our option):

  • in the case of goods:
    • the replacement of the goods you ordered from us, or the supply of equivalent goods; or
    • the payment of the cost of replacing the goods or of acquiring equivalent goods; and
  • in the case of services:
    • the supplying of the services again; or
    • the payment of the cost of having the services supplied again.

Except as set out in these Terms:

  • and to the extent that we are not prohibited by law from limiting our liability, any other liability we may have is limited in the same manner as provided for above, including in respect of any liability that arises as a consequence of our negligence;
  • our liability to you for any matter related to the subject matter of these Terms will not include any special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages or loss of profits and will not exceed the cost to you for the particular transaction which has caused you the loss or damage; and
  • we are not responsible in any way for any liability, loss, damage or expense that arises directly or indirectly from a problem that occurs by any virus infecting our service.

You agree that you indemnify us in relation to any cost, loss, liability, or damage that we may incur or suffer because:

  • the service you order is not suitable for its intended purpose or does not suit the relevant circumstances;
  • you fail to obtain formal advice from a professional adviser concerning whether the service you choose is suitable for its intended purpose or is suitable for particular circumstances;
  • of the answers you provide to questions asked of you when using our service;
  • you do not answer all questions completely and accurately;
  • you modify the services after they are provided to you;
  • you breach these Terms in any way; or
  • you otherwise misuse our service.

You agree to indemnify and hold us, our directors, officers and employees, harmless from any claim, demand, or damage, including legal fees, asserted by any third party due to or arising out of your use of, or conduct on, our Site.

Recovering revenue lost through your misuse of our service or breach of these Terms

If we lose revenue through your misuse of our service or you breach these Terms, we may recover from you each of the following:

  • the revenue we have lost;
  • the costs incurred in identifying the extent of our loss;
  • our costs of recovering the revenue we have lost; and
  • default interest on any amount owing under this clause.

If we identify we have lost revenue due to your misuse of our service or breach of these Terms, we may audit your operations (at your cost) to determine the extent of our loss.

The above does not limit in any way our recovery of all other amounts from you which are recoverable at law, or under these Terms, in respect of your breach of these Terms.

Refunds, returns, exchanges

Your completed order gives us the authority to prepare the service or document you have requested. If you have provided us with incorrect instructions or information that results in an incorrect service or document then we will not be held responsible and we are not required to provide a refund.

We agree to replace, at no cost to you, any service or document which includes errors caused by us.

If you wish to apply for a refund, a return, or an exchange, you must write to us setting out:

  • the intended purpose to which the documents were to be applied;
  • the reasons that you want a return, a refund, or an exchange;
  • copies of the service or document in relation to which you request a refund, a return, or an exchange; and
  • any other information or materials we ask for that we believe is relevant to our decision.

General

We may amend these Terms at any time by publishing a revised version of these Terms on our Site, or by notifying you in writing and providing a copy of the revised Terms. You agree that any such revised Terms will apply, and you will be bound by these Terms (as amended) from 14 days after the earlier of the time of their publication on our Site, or you are notified of the amendments by us in writing. Your continued use of our Site after such amendment of these Terms constitutes acceptance of them. These Terms are governed by and are to be read and interpreted according to the laws of South Australia.  We and you irrevocably and unconditionally submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in that jurisdiction.

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be excluded and the remainder of these Terms will continue to apply.

You may not assign or transfer any rights or obligations under these Terms to any third party. We may assign or transfer any rights under these Terms to any third party in our absolute discretion.

Any failure by us to take action regarding any actual or suspected breach of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of our right to do so or of your obligations.

These Terms set out the entire agreement between us and you regarding the subject matter of these Terms.

These Terms will continue to apply irrespective of any suspension or termination of your account on our Site or any cessation of use by you of our Site.