The timing could not be better. On 15 July, the Financial System Inquiry’s (FSI) interim report is due to be handed down, and just one week later, Jordan George, SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) technical and policy senior manager, will address the opening SPAA State Technical Conference in Sydney on just what it all means.

The imminent increase in the contribution caps from 1 July this year may sound like great news for most of us. The standard concessional contributions (CC) cap will go from $25,000 to $30,000 and for anyone who turns 50 or older during the next financial year, their CC cap will be $35,000.

When the Cooper review handed down its final report into superannuation in July 2010, to the surprise of some (and the chagrin of a few) in the industry, it largely gave the SMSF sector a clean bill of health.

Roll up, roll up. There will be local, national, even international speakers – and all will be topical and interesting. The issues will range from the technical, administrative, investment to the legal; we might even attract the odd politician.

(AFSL), which broadens the type of strategic, non-product advice accountants can provide clients, began operating on 1 July.

The ultimate goal of all participants in the superannuation system should be to depoliticise it. Super is too important to be a political football, tossed about whenever political expediency demands it.

Remember the 1982 movie The Year of Living Dangerously starring a young Mel Gibson and directed by Peter Weir? The story follows young Australian reporter Guy Hamilton, who arrives fresh in Indonesia on the eve of the 1965 communist party coup and who has to navigate his way through the political turmoil of that period.