The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has described the significant fall in registered SMSF auditors over the past decade as attrition it expected to see and has resulted in a more accurate picture of how many practitioners are specialising in servicing the sector.
Statistics presented at the SMSF Association National Conference 2026 showed practitioners providing audit services for the sector dropped from around 6700 in 2016 to 3762 as of February this year.
“That wasn’t unexpected. In 2013, there were a large number of auditors registered automatically under a revision to the SIS (Superannuation Industry (Supervision)) Act and there were a lot of exceptions. One of those exceptions was registered company auditors were automatically accepted as SMSF auditors,” ASIC enforcement inquiries and compliance senior executive leader Peter Ridgley explained during a panel session at the recent industry event in Adelaide.
“What we’re finding is those exits represent those SMSF auditors that are probably not doing any SMSF audits.”
Ridgley revealed one contributing factor for a large spike in SMSF auditor exits in 2018, around 680, and 2023, about 800, was ASIC compliance action against practitioners who failed to lodge an SMSF annual auditor statement.
Panel moderator Super Sphere director Belinda Aisbett reinforced the message that the fall in SMSF auditor numbers was no real cause for concern.
“I know that I’ve got colleagues who talk to me about their concerns with auditor numbers dropping so much and that we really are quite a rare breed, but the reality is it was not auditors who were doing [SMSF] audits who are moving out of the system,” Aisbett said.
“So it seems like a big drop, but it’s not necessarily, practically, a big drop in auditor numbers.”
With regard to new entrants to the SMSF auditor space, Ridgley revealed it totalled roughly 60 to 80 a year since 2016.
Aisbett noted: “We are going to need to keep auditors available to do the job that’s there and if we’ve got this decreasing number with no new entrants, then that [would] make it very difficult for the industry collectively.
“So it’s nice to see there are still new entrants coming in.”
