The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) announcement at last month’s SMSF Association National Conference that it will be conducting a shadow shopping exercise on SMSF advice has been met with a mixed reaction from sector practitioners.

The SMSF Association and Financial Services Council (FSC) are joining forces for a conference that will explore why women retire with substantially lower superannuation balances than men.

Understandably, trustees of new SMSFs are typically full of enthusiasm about what can be achieved. It’s largely why many follow the self-managed route in the first place.

The head of a global asset management firm has refuted the federal government’s belief superannuation is a great source of revenue and questioned its use of this notion as the justification for the constant changes being made to the retirement savings system.

The Australian superannuation system has many fine qualities, but if you were asked to rate it on the basis of trust – on a score of 1 to 10 – what would you give it?

The SMSF Association has called for adequacy to be included in the superannuation objective, labelling the concept fundamental to achieving a secure and dignified retirement.

The SMSF Association has advised SMSF specialists to quickly digest the details of the federal government’s superannuation legislation, which was passed by both houses unamended on 23 November.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has welcomed the release of the Senate Economics References Committee report on women in retirement, saying it acknowledges issues outside of super, including pay rates and workforce participation.