AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver expects tomorrow night’s federal budget will contain a couple of items that will have an impact on SMSF members.

The ability for investors to make a portfolio allocation to managed funds offering market-neutral strategies is reducing, according to Zenith Investment Partners.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten’s suggestion that a ban on the use of direct borrowing by SMSFs should be revisited to help cool an overheated housing market has been labelled a poor attempt to attack the sector as statistics show no link to systemic risks.

The Loftus Peak Global Disruption Fund, covering listed global equities on major stock exchanges, has been awarded a four-star superior investment-grade rating following an independent review by SQM Research.

An advisory environment where full professional cooperation and respect between accountants and financial planners is standard industry practice may not be achieved until the next generation of practitioners establish themselves, according to a business analysis firm.

Class has introduced additional features to help accountants and SMSF administrators manage the government’s new superannuation reforms, in particular, tackling bulk commutation of pension accounts.

Specialist SMSF document provider NowInfinity has formed a strategic partnership with law firm View Legal to enhance its platform services, with an estate planning solution the first to be developed.

A self-managed super statistic that doesn’t seem to change much over the years is the strong preference of new SMSFs for individual trustees rather than a corporate trustee.

SMSF advisers will now have to consider carefully how they structure their clients’ risk cover either inside the super fund or external to it, a senior technical executive has said.