Category: Commentary Archives

Phil McCarroll writes a piece for Your Investment Property where he talks about Nicholas James Ellis, a NSW accountant, who has had to appear in court for SMSF fraud to the tune of $850,000. He is indicted for 23 criminal counts. 12 such counts involve making misleading statements. To add, there are nine counts of misappropriation and a count each of fraud and deceptive financial gain.

Ron Phipps-Ellis writes an article for the website SMSF Adviser where he talks about the regulations governing valuations of SMSF assets. The rules have changed a lot over the last few years and this warrants that the practitioners keep themselves updated with the latest developments.

I recently came across an article on the website SMSF Adviser which talked about the penchant of SMSF towards property and why this investment strategy might be fraught with risk. For many self-managed funds, the residential property exposure is too high; as high as 30 percent.

Mike King writes an article for The Motley Fool where he says that the SMSF sector is not only growing in numbers but also in average worth. Growing as much as 23% over the last 5 years, the average SMSF boasts of $1 million in assets. The median balance is $603,000. SMSFs now hold close to $590 billion in asset which is approximately 29% of the entire Super pool, estimated at $2 trillion.

Miranda Brownlee writes a piece for the SMSF Adviser where she says that the repercussions of the Australian share market are clearly felt by the self-managed Super funds. In the wake of the poor performance of the local share market the SMSF sector dipped by 3.2% in the September Quarter. From $575.4 billion in June, their value came down to $557.2 billion in September.

Mike Taylor writes an article for the website Money Management where he focuses on the long-running myth that SMSF owners are a conservative lot. In light of the share market bloodbath witnessed lately, it has come to be accepted that the SMSF sector can really make a go for it when needed and at such times, they can be much more aggressive than their counterparts.