With more than a third of superannuation assets tied up in self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), adjustments need to be made to ensure an external dispute resolution system is available to SMSF members, ASIC deputy chairman Jeremy Cooper said.
"Whether you're a trustee or member of an SMSF and you have a complaint regarding your fund, there's currently no direct external dispute resolution process available," Cooper told delegates at the Self-Managed Superannuation Fund Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA) conference yesterday.
SMSF members and trustees can seek advice through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) but this poses obstacles, Cooper said.
"The monetary limited fix at the moment [to raise an issue through FOS] is $150,000, which is far too low for the SMSF sector, particularly considering that before the market meltdown the average fund was worth around $800,000," he said.
ASIC believes the FOS monetary limit needs to be adjusted so it does not discriminate against the SMSF sector nor the concerns of SMSF members, Cooper said.
Other areas of interest for ASIC in 2009 include the reasons why people establish SMSFs and the ongoing issue of how retail investors, including SMSF members and trustees, attain sound advice so they properly understand key investment principles, Cooper said.
"ASIC will conduct a form of shadow shop activity over the next financial year as well ... which will relate in some way to the financial advice given to SMSF members and trustees," he said.
"We would do this to educate retail investors and to raise the bar for advisers."
