“If anything, the standards of the actual accountants and their knowledge is going up, partly because there is so much more out there. But I think the issue now becomes the quality of the education and the training they are receiving,” she added.

Ms Stylianou said accountants are generally “safe” if they get training from their accounting body or the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA).

“If you are talking about others who are not members of one of the bodies or do education outside the accounting bodies or outside SPAA, I am saying accountants just have to be wary of the quality of education,” she said.

“I think definitely the standards are being lifted anyway, just by sheer necessity because there is a lot more competition in the SMSF space,” she said.

SPAA senior manager, technical and policy Jordan George said “broadly” accountants do have sound education concerning SMSFs and there is not necessarily anything that needs to be improved.

“I think it is up to each individual accountant to make sure they understand all the different factors around advising a client into an SMSF, and making sure they have the appropriate knowledge base and training to make sure they can provide quality advice to their client,” he told SMSF Adviser.