This takes two minutes and almost nobody does it.
Every SMSF must be audited annually by an approved SMSF auditor, registered with ASIC and holding a current SMSF auditor number. ASIC maintains a public register, and you can look up any auditor by name to see whether their registration is current, suspended, cancelled or subject to additional conditions.
Why it is worth doing this year
ASIC has significantly increased its activity in this area. Across the 2025-26 financial year it made 64 administrative decisions about SMSF auditors, up from 48 the year before. Those decisions resulted in eight auditors being disqualified, three suspended, additional conditions imposed on ten, and 43 registrations cancelled. The cancellations nearly doubled year on year.
The reasons given cover failures to maintain independence, non-compliance with auditing and assurance standards, failing to meet continuing professional development requirements, failing to maintain practical experience, failing to hold professional indemnity insurance, failing to lodge annual statements, and findings that a person was no longer fit and proper to remain registered.
The ATO also completed close to 200 reviews and audits of SMSF auditors in 2025-26 and referred 39 of them to ASIC, including auditors who lacked the practical experience to conduct audits and auditors who did not conduct independent or adequate audits.
There is also at least one case of a permanently disqualified auditor continuing to issue audit reports after his ban took effect, which ASIC has referred for prosecution. If your fund was one of those, you have an audit report that is worth nothing.
What to do
Ask your accountant or administrator who audits your fund and what their SMSF auditor number is. You are entitled to this and the answer should come back immediately.
Search that name on ASIC's professional registers. Check the registration is current and note any conditions.
While you are there, note that the same ASIC registers cover banned and disqualified persons across credit activity, financial services licensees, and corporate bodies. It is a reasonable habit to check any financial services provider before you engage them.
What a good answer sounds like
"Your fund is audited by [name], SMSF auditor number [number], who is independent of our firm. Here is their engagement letter."
What should concern you
Vagueness. A reluctance to name the auditor. A suggestion that the audit is handled internally without any explanation of how independence is maintained. Or an audit fee that has never appeared separately and that nobody can account for.
The audit is the one independent check on everything else that happens in your fund. It is reasonable to know who is doing it.