Trustee education falling through the cracks
Those who run SMSFs (the Trustees) are the ones ‘doing the doing’ of running their SMSF. That’s the whole point, right? Yep, but it does have its downsides.
Some trustees will think “hey, this is a great idea” and do something without checking with their accountant and certainly their auditor.
Why? Lack of education. The funny thing is, that trustees sign a form when they set up their fund saying ‘we understand what running a fund entails and we promise we won’t do anything wrong or dodgy’. But mostly, they don’t understand what wrong or dodgy even is.
The accountant isn’t paid to educate. They’re paid to do the compliance work and occasional guidance, when the trustee asks for it.
The trouble is when the trustees do something, usually with the best of intentions, to help increase their SMSF’s value, only to find out that they weren’t allowed to do it. Adding to this is that it can often be a year or more after the event when the accountant and auditor find out, and sometimes that is too late to recover the situation (or at least come up with a palatable solution).
We are looking at a means to promote trustee education – in bite sized pieces, in normal people speak, to help trustees. The idea isn’t to be a comprehensive education, but to give the basics enough to make trustees pause, ask the experts before they do.
Watch this space 😉