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SMSF protection on Trio inquiry agenda

Kate Kachor  |  09 Aug 2011Text size  Decrease  Increase  |  

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Kate Kachor is a journalist with InvestorDaily, a Morningstar publication.

 

The parliamentary inquiry into the collapse of Trio Capital may provide an opportunity to examine a mechanism to offer greater education and protection for self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) investors.

Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) on Corporations and Financial Services chair Bernie Ripoll said it was his hope the inquiry, which begins on 30 August, would create a better understanding of the SMSF sector for Australians.

"I'd like to see, through the gathering of minds through this inquiry, if we can't find a clever way to offer people: one, further education so they better understand what they are starting with; and two, whether there is a way to create some protection around people who have an SMSF, the rider being, without taking away their control," Ripoll said.

He said it was also his hope the inquiry delivered a similar document to the one the PJC provided in regards to its Storm Financial investigation.

"What I'd like to see come out of it, similar as to what we did with Storm, is to have a document which we think fairly represents what took place and any learnings that we have from those events," he said.

"And also I would like it to provide a mechanism for people affected, people who lost their investments and superannuation to understand that the parliament also knows what happened and it's not just swept under the carpet and it's not just a matter of bureaucracy - that real people have looked at this and have made recommendations on the basis of what took place.

"If there can be improvements in the future, we can use the findings of the inquiry as the basis for those improvements."

The inquiry represented "a completion of that suite of authority" that could look at the serious matter of the Trio collapse and provide some closure on it, he said.

"I know we will get all the key players along to the inquiry. A lot of work has been done in this area already, so we're quite lucky in that sense," he said.

"But the work we are doing is of a different nature. We're not a court, we're not here to cast judgment as such - we're here to closely examine the circumstances of what took place with Trio and everything that is attached to it, and then to look at that from the perspective of what does it mean for regulation and where can we make improvements. That's my goal."