Super auditors need step up
The chair of the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) has raised his concerns over the quality of auditors currently servicing superannuation funds and in particular self-managed super funds (SMSF) expressing the view that many of them do not have the specialised knowledge to perform the role properly.
“Some auditors probably shouldn’t be auditing superannuation funds or self-managed superannuation funds,” Graeme Colley said.
“What we’re looking at is the establishment of a specialist self-managed fund auditor designation and developing that and hoping that will be approved at some stage in the near future,” he explained.
SPAA also sees compliance as a real area of risk for SMSFs, especially in regard to the timeliness of responses from members of these funds.
“Usually mums and dads aren’t in the business of being trustees therefore their compliance aspects need a bit of a push along unlike the larger superannuation funds being professionally paid to operate the fund,” Colley said.
And he is worried that these administration issues will continue into the future if fund members and the regulator cannot work together to put the appropriate discipline procedures in place to rectify the problem.
Furthermore, Colley believes the new ‘simpler super’ framework may in fact work to lure individuals into a false sense of security now that entitlements withdrawn after the age of 60 are tax free.
“People over the age of 60 might end up stripping their superannuation fund out unnecessarily when it could [more effectively] remain in superannuation a lot longer,” he warned.
Recommended for you
Private wealth manager Escala Partners has launched an end-to-end investment platform to strengthen its alternatives capability as clients seek sophisticated vehicles.
Advisers at DOD Bookkeeping, which received an $11 million penalty last week, received as much as 40 per cent of their remuneration via a bonus when clients purchased a property via a SMSF, according to court documents.
Perpetual Wealth Management has hired two advisers from Ord Minnett as part of five hires, just weeks after the rival firm announced it had picked up six from Perpetual Private.
ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of a Perth financial services firm following payments to its clients by the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort after a failed managed investment scheme.
