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new ‘simpler super’ framework may in fact work to lure individuals into a false sense of security now that entitlements withdrawn after the age of 60 are tax free.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.