ATO letters issued recently to SMSF trustees examining their investment strategies regarding diversification should be used as a starting point by auditors and advisers to educate trustees on their responsibilities in this area. Although the trustees are intimately responsible for their SMSF investment strategies and should be the ones to write it, the financial planners, SMSF specialists and accountants should assist the trustees with this exercise.

I also believe that the investment strategies must be customized, and the trustees need to be involved, rather than using widely held “standard template” for SMSF investment strategies.