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ARTICLE · 12 APRIL 2019

A $2 million-dollar error: What SMSF professionals can learn from these auditor liability cases

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These NSW cases highlight SMSF audit risk and provide highly useful, transferable lessons for accountants and lawyers.

AustraliaFinance and Banking
Rebecca Van Langenberg
Rebecca Van Langenberg

In brief:

The cases of Cam & Bear Pty Ltd v McGoldrick [2018] NSWCA 110 and Ryan Wealth Holdings Pty Ltd v Baumgartner [2018] NSWSC 1502 highlight SMSF audit risk and provide highly useful, transferable lessons for accountants and lawyers.

What you need to know:

The 'auditor cases' highlight some of the risks for SMSF advisers, and the implications from both a professional and financial standpoint.

The broader lessons for professional advisers that can be distilled from these cases are as follows:

  • Ensure that the key contact for the client is specified in the retainer, and that the key contact is copied in on all communications, particularly where instructions are being provided by another adviser as agent for the client.

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The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances. Madgwicks is a member of Meritas, one of the world's largest law firm alliances.

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