“Treasury are feeling pretty good about this measure. They’ve had some positive feedback from the community so I think it’s inevitable that we will see this change go through,” Mr Burgess told delegates at the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand National SMSF conference.

While some clients may benefit from having more members in their SMSF, Mr Burgess also noted that there are clearly some risks associated with this measure.

“Aside from the additional admin, and operational complexity involved with having more members in your fund, in my view, there are also some investment risks here,” he said.

“I’ve been having conversations with clients recently who are very excited about this proposal. What they want to do is set up an SMSF, pool their savings together and go out and get a residential property, and that property will be their retirement fund. Aside from the obvious diversification issues, there is also some succession planning issues there.”

“So while I think this measure is well intended, I can see some risks in allowing a larger group of individuals to pull their superannuation savings together and benefit from the investment concessions that are afforded to SMSFs.”