The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) decision to amend the wholesale investor classification that will allow some SMSF trustees to be included in this category has been described by a superannuation consultant as unusual in comparison to the general protectionist attitude towards the sector.
“We are constantly being told that self-managed super funds are dangerous territory and people are going to be preyed upon, and everyone needs to be protected from themselves, mainly from the experts and the large funds,” Super Central superannuation consultant Tony Negline told the organisation’s Bacon Super and Eggs seminar in Sydney on Friday.
“But here we are having ASIC not necessarily appearing to agree with that, saying let’s amend these rules slightly to expand the number of investors who are not going to be subject to the normal consumer protections and that expanded capacity happens to be in the self-managed super fund sector.
“So they haven’t looked at it from a non-superannuation space; they’ve only looked at it from a self-managed super fund space.
“So it is an extremely unusual move.”
Neglline said despite the contrarian nature of the development, it was a positive reflection on the sector.
“In many respects thankfully they’re saying there are some adults in the SMSF sector, so that’s a good thing I think,” he said.
He estimated roughly 50,000 SMSFs would be affected by ASIC’s decision and said a raft of new investment opportunities would be open to them as a result.
“It does mean access to exclusive or special capital raisings or share offerings,” he said.
However, he pointed out taking advantage of some of those new investment opportunities would be accompanied by some difficulties.
“One of the difficulties of course with these is cashing out investments [as] it’s often restricted, if not denied.”
