Mandatory education process questioned

The SMSF Association has confirmed its apprehension over the direction in which the government’s proposed policy of mandatory education for individuals about to establish an SMSF is likely to take.

“[Regarding this measure the government’s Dashboard Impact Analysis] has said it is expected that [the education program will take] about three hours. That’s a long time. That’s more than I would have expected for someone to [undertake] a course on self-managed super funds,” SMSF Association chief executive Peter Burgess told delegates at the ASF Audits Technical Summit 2026 hosted in Adelaide last Friday.

“Now this is starting to look like a barrier [of entry] to me,” he added.

He pointed out the industry body is supportive of the uplifting trustee standards but was adamant the process must be performed in a prudent manner.

“What we are asking the government to do is keep an open mind as to how you achieve that [goal]. We don’t support the ATO [education program] being the only course the trustee would have to [complete] in order to meet this requirement,” he said.

Burgess conceded the government has not stated this would be the case but identified evidence to suggest his suspicions have some merit.

“Things seem to be heading down that path where it would require new trustees to do the ATO course because [the dashboard] went on to say the ATO already has existing training modules that can be leveraged so use that,” he noted, in reference to regulator’s online course comprised of three modules.

“[The government] talks about three hours [as to the required time for education standard to be met] and when you add up [the duration of three modules put together] that’s pretty close to three hours,” he explained.

“So you can see where [the government] is going with this and the type of thing it is looking for new trustees to do,” he concluded.