Hi Ian

Thanks for the kind words...it's a vexing question and I suspect most people in adviser land have their Compliance "friends" leaning over their shoulder telling them that they need to provide you with a Statement of Advice. Post Royal Commission, everyone is gun shy when it comes to advice, to the point where it seems the ability to provide simple, fairly straightforward advice comes at a massive cost to the consumer. I suspect the pendulum will, in due course, swing back to a more sensible world, but don't hold your breath.

I've just sent an email to an old industry friend, Grant Abbott who was the Industry SMSF legend. It's probably 10 years since I last saw him, so I don't know how long it will take him to reply...and it's his birthday today, I discovered, so I'm not expecting an immediate response.

Anyway, should he reply to my email, I'll ask him does he know of advisers/accountants with the skill set who could provide Technical rather than Financial advice. It might be helpful if you could tell me what part of Oz you live in so that we can (hopefully) narrow down the field for you.

cheers

Rod

Thanks Rod,

Yeah that is pretty much the reaction from the people that I spoke to. I don't understand why they couldn't put a bunch of disclaimers in their SOA to cover themselves, but I guess it is just easier to not do it for one little client. I am based in Brisbane. But happy to call / skype / zoom if you can find the right person.

Regards

Ian

You'd think they'd be some Government or other websites which would answer all of your questions @IanF . If they are technical questions, i.e. about what you have to do (are required to do), and what you are not allowed to do within an SMSF, it would be crazy if there weren't easily accessable guidelines available for free in this day and age. In fact, I would have thought that ASIC or the ATO or someone else would NEED to have that info readily available for people to look up, otherwise how could they police the system? People need to know the rules if they are to get in trouble for breaking them.

Yes @Bear77 , There are plenty of resources available. The ATO website is a good place to start and has lots of material.

There are also a few other websites that we have found useful:

SMSF Association even have a find a Specialist service, however there isn't a category to cover just technical advice. I rang a few in the past but have now sent them another query to see if they can clarify as this is the sort of place I would expect to be able to find someone.

SuperGuide is a great resource and has a lot of checklist and process descriptions that we used to ensure that we had everything in place to transfer our accounts from accumulation to pension phase. They also keep you up to date on the changes that are occurring in the SMSF industry.

We transferred our initial account management from Sharesight to SF360 as it managed all the accounting requirements from data feeds from Commsec and Banks to producing end of year financials, tax returns and has accountant and auditor integration so that apart from a few signature pages (which are also uploaded) everything is in one place and everyone can do their bit. They have links to legal firms to create the documents that you need such as transferring to pension phase, making cash withdrawals, make extra payments, role your pension back to accumulation then back if you make additional contributions and the literally hundreds of other things that you may need to do, and the meeting minutes and documents that your auditor will want to ensure you have followed the correct process.

Sure I can find the information that I need, and my wife and I both have accounting / business qualifications and run our own businesses, so we have a better understanding than many of what is required. What I don't understand, is why we can ring our accountant and lawyer for specific advice when we are considering a business decision, but if we want to get SMSF advice, the person that we get the advice from needs to understand our goals and risk profile, financial situation, and life plan before they can tell us about some of the things that Rod mentioned which may be appropriate, what is involved and let us make the decision.

Hey Bear77

As a Strawman newbie, thanks for the many posts you've made. I am learning so much, so quickly.

Insofar as SMSF's are concerned, while there remains a degree of mystique about them, they are, for the most part, no different to Australian Super, Colonial, etc. They all have to abide by the rules in the Superannuation Industry Supervision (SIS) Act.

Where the difference between SMSF's and public offer funds are, often lie in the assets held within the fund. SMSF's are often used to acquire and hold residential property, business premises, artwork.

Unrelated to IanF's question, but worth noting is that members of an SMSF, in the event of say, fraud, are not afforded the same protection as that of an APRA regulated fund. They are not eligible for government compensation.

The ATO does provide checklists for SMSF trustees (link below) which help with yes/no responses (that apply to everyone), but the challenge maybe in deciding what is a technical question vs financial question.

I've probably not worded that very well, but as an example, a rather innocuous technical question could be, "can a person access their super if they are aged 60 and retired permanently"? Prima facie, the answer is yes, because the person has met, what's called a Condition of Release.

But, as an example, extreme though it is, if a person had never been gainfully employed (ie paid for work), then the answer would be no, they couldn't access their super, because only someone who has worked, can retire. It's an extreme example and in this day and age, highly unlikely....but not impossible.

Of course, the financial advice/accounting industries have a vested interest in complexity but to be fair, it's the complexity in the super rules that make it challenging to provide all encompassing answers.

Maybe ChatGPT will someday provide the solution?

https://www.ato.gov.au/Super/Self-managed-super-funds/In-detail/SMSF-resources/SMSF-checklists/

I forgot to add, for the person in my extreme example who had never worked, they could access their super once they reach age 65.

This is the reply that I got from the SMSF Association:

I don’t know that anyone would do anything without fully understanding your circumstances and requirements, which would probably require creating a plan specific to your needs.

All I can suggest is to identify a number of advisers and administrators in your area and make contact with them to discuss your needs.