Frank La Spada, SMSF specialist auditor and adviser with Seamless SMSF, said in a recent webinar that auditors must cite documentation that trustees have reviewed their investment strategy duty as required under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act.
“Trustees need to provide an investment strategy to the auditor who needs a copy of the strategy,” La Spada said.
“The investment strategy needs to consider all of the provisions outlined in regulation 4.09, and it needs to include ranges considering the investment profiles otherwise it’s a breach of that regulation. For the most part, firms have gotten a lot better with their investment strategy understanding.”
Anthony Cullen, senior SMSF educator with Accurium, said some products allow trustees to formulate their own strategy online, which many firms now find more cost-effective, and that most advisers were proactive in requesting this documentation as part of their annual checks.
However, he added accountants and auditors may also take on new clients who do not have all the documentation required under section 35c of the SIS Act.
La Spada said trustees are required to provide the auditor with the requested documents within 14 days of that request being made and if they fail to do so the auditor can lodge a contravention report, which would be classified as a part B qualification.
“In practice, this process is not generally abided by that strictly from an auditor’s perspective, it’s more about providing the auditor the documentation they’ve requested,” he said.
“We don’t have a stopwatch to time the 14 days, but we need trustees to provide the documentation we are asking for. As auditors, we’re going to give you the reason why we’re asking for the document.”
Trustees need to do their best to obtain the documents, but if they come back after a certain period of time and explain they have been unable to locate it, auditors have no option but to lodge an ACR.
“However, if they have contacted their investment manager who indicates that it could take a couple of weeks to obtain, auditors can use their professional judgement,” La Spada said.
Cullen said the same situation can apply to accountants and reiterated that how trustees approach the request for documentation can impact the progress of their audit.
“If you engage with the auditor, you keep them up to date with what the trustees are trying to do to get that information, in my experience, they’re not generally going to worry about that 14 days too strictly.”
“Whereas I’ve seen situations where the trustees, not the accountants, come back and say, ‘I don’t think the auditor needs that. I’m not going to give it to them’. That sort of attitude towards it is probably more likely to result in the breach, as opposed to a trustee trying to get the documentation but needing a little more time. As an accountant, you’re going to have a direct influence on how you want to deal with this type of situation.”
