Chris Reed, director of Business Concepts Group, said it is a requirement under the regulations that investment strategies are reviewed regularly, preferably on an annual basis.
“It’s a good time when you are getting your information together for your fund’s lodgement or you’re preparing your accounts, to review your investment strategy so you’ve ticked that box,” he said.
“Then if it needs to be updated, you can do it at the same time.”
In addition to reviewing investment strategies, Reed said it is also important that funds look closely at their general transaction documents for the year.
“Take a look at your general transaction documents. It could be asset purchases or asset sales. There might be corporate actions, and if you’ve got shares or managed funds, look at your dividend statements, tax statements for your managed funds, and the distributions there. Additionally, look to see if you’ve got general property type expenses that could be rates, water or repairs and get all the documentation together to enable the preparation of the accounts,” he said.
He continued that an auditor would rather see more documentation than is required. As such, it is better to try to collate this as soon as possible at the start of a new financial year.
“We tell trustees that it’s a good idea to get their SMSF accounts and audit done as soon as possible in the new financial year as it puts last year to bed and enables them to fix any issues or compliance breaches,” he said.
“Then they can start looking forward and adjusting their strategies for the new financial year.”
Although tax statements may not be available sometimes until September or even October, Reed said some aspects of a lodgement can be started earlier so the process can be more efficiently completed.
“If you are waiting for tax statements, obviously, you can’t finish the accounts, but you can get started on them by getting everything else together and get it moving,” he said.
“You want to get last year put to bed for strategies for potentially starting a pension so you can know what your pension drawdown needs to be. You need to know what the year-end figures are to move forward and start strategising for the next financial year and know where you stand.”
