Release Notes - October 2026

These release notes complement the Webinar titled 'Smarter SMSF Update October 2026'. Topics covered include: further deed changes for the new LRBA business real property rules, an AML/CTF update, new platform home pages, Smartie AI subscriptions, a rebuilt user permissions model in the Admin Console, document updates, coming-soon projects and CPD & education.

1. Deed Changes: September 2026

Aaron Dunn explained that, after the large body of work delivered for 1 July 2026 (Division 296 tax, AML/CTF laws and public trustee appointments), further legislative change meant more deed updates. The new version, SM2-Deed-2026-09, is now available on the platform.

1.1 Business Real Property (BRP) — LRBA Law Change effective from 10 August 2026

Under the LRBA law change effective 10 August 2026, real property acquired under an LRBA must be business real property (s67A SIS Act). The deed now reflects this.

• New Rule 8A (Rules 8 and 8A) — Rule 8 continues to cover what a fund can ordinarily invest in. Rule 8A is carved out to deal specifically with LRBAs entered into after the change: LRBA property must be business real property for the life of the borrowing
• Grandfathered LRBA arrangements — a new defined term covering arrangements in place before the change, so they can be maintained and refinanced
• Deed of Variation — the grandfathering carries through into the deed of variation, in the same way reversionary pension status and binding nominations made under a previous deed are preserved. If a deed is updated, grandfathered arrangements are not lost

1.2 Trustee Duties

Rules 7, 14 and 15 have been amended to reflect the ongoing obligations that come with the BRP definition:

• The investment strategy must weigh the risk of losing business real property status
• Ongoing review and record of BRP status, with borrowing power limited by Rule 8A
• Expect declarations and other evidence of BRP status to become part of the disclosure conversation at audit each year for post-10 August arrangements

1.3 QROPS Deed and Definitions

• QROPS deed only (Rules 25 and 31) — transitional NMPA limits and Protected Pension Age conditions. The normal minimum pension age rises from 55 to 57 from 6 April 2028. HMRC is requesting current deeds that incorporate the transitional measures, and a number of clients have already updated their deeds and lodged them with HMRC. The regulations are still to be finalised after consultation, so further adjustments are possible
• Definitions — four new and four updated definitions

Reminder: the 1 July 2026 changes covered Division 296, AML/CTF and public trustee appointments.

• 📌 SMSF Deed Change log: smarter-smsf.helpscoutdocs.com/article/220-change-log-smsf-trust-deed

2. AML/CTF Update

2.1 Recap — The CDD Decision

Where you create documents captured as a designated service, your firm needs to decide how it will complete customer due diligence (CDD) through Smarter SMSF. These include company incorporations (standard and special purpose), unit trusts and discretionary trusts, LRBA set-ups, and some changes of trustee. One question sets the path:

"Does the firm have its own AUSTRAC-registered AML/CTF Program?"

• 📌 Step 1: How to complete the Reliance Membership Application Form: smarter-smsf.helpscoutdocs.com/article/453
• 📌 AML/CTF laws knowledge base category: smarter-smsf.helpscoutdocs.com/category/452-amlctf-laws

For the full end-to-end walk-through of how the AML process works on the platform, see the July 2026 release notes and webinar.

2.2 AML Order Forms — About to Go Live

After a long build, the first designated service order forms are deploying into production.

2.3 Verify Once, and It Carries Forward

If you do not have Reliance in place, verification is only needed once per person affected by the CDD requirement. VerifiMe holds the verification for 12 months, so later orders pick it up automatically. AN example: John Citizen is setting up a new SMSF with a corporate trustee.

1. Company incorporation order — John receives the VerifiMe invite and completes his KYC check. Once complete, the document is released
2. New SMSF order — when you enter John's email address on the KYC Verification section of the form, it shows as previously verified, and the document is delivered automatically
3. Any later order — the same applies for any document John is involved in during the next 12 months

Practitioner tip: if Reliance is not in place, set client expectations about the VerifiMe step before placing the order. The document is held until all parties are verified.

3. Platform Features & Enhancements

3.1 A Clearer Starting Point — New Home Pages

A common piece of feedback is that useful tools sit behind the left-hand menu, so if you do not already know they are there, you do not find them (sample documents, the AML webinar, how integrations work). Each section of the platform now gets its own home page, showing what your subscription includes and taking you straight to it. Aaron expects the home pages to roll out by the end of this week and into early next week.

• You still use the App Switcher to move between sections
• Access to the underlying features is still controlled by membership tags. For example, anyone can open the Smartie AI home page and look around, but access to Smartie itself is limited to subscribers
• The Documents home page links back to the release notes, so what is covered in each webinar is one click away

3.2 Smartie AI

Smartie AI gives you plain-English SMSF technical answers grounded in trusted Smarter SMSF references. It was launched in a dedicated webinar last week.

WATCH THE WEBINAR

📌 Smartie AI: smartersmsf.com/smartie-ai

Key features

• Six specialist agents — contributions and pensions, investment rules, trusteeship, membership, estate planning and taxation
• Referenced answers — answers come from curated Smarter SMSF content (over 500 documents), not the open internet, with references shown. When the ATO updated its LRBA rulings and guidance, the new material was imported and available to Smartie within 12 to 24 hours
• Smart escalation — when Smartie cannot answer, it does not guess. It logs a ticket for the specialist team, and the answer is then fed back so every user benefits
• The Playbook — expert-written prompts and follow-ups that tighten the answer. The better the question, the better the response, and the user guides cover how to write good ones
• Built for trust — no client personal data. Zero Trust and DLP, built on Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Human in the loop — Smarter SMSF specialists oversee quality

What it looks like in practice

• In the live demo, Aaron put a minimum pension shortfall scenario to Smartie and received a referenced answer. He then asked it to draft an email to the client, a step-by-step guide and a file note for the auditor. Work that can take 10 to 30 minutes was done in about 5
• A question on electronic signing returned the Corporations Act position and Rule 30 of the Smarter SMSF deed, which provides that documents must be signed under the deed and may be signed by hand or electronically
• Coming over the next 12 to 18 months: links to Smarter SMSF documents and document creation, links to training and CPD, secure file upload (deleted after use) and download to Word

Subscription tiers — priced per firm, not per seat

One subscription and one shared token pool for the whole firm. Add as many users as you like, so juniors get the same access as partners. One question typically uses 2 tokens.

Prices are ex GST, monthly or annual, with a 3-month minimum

• Monthly credits do not roll over (this reflects how Microsoft credits work)
• Need more this month? Top up in 500-token blocks without upgrading. Top-ups do not roll over, and Smarter SMSF adjusts your subscription in the back end
• You can upgrade or downgrade between tiers
• Example: three staff on Starter (1,000 tokens) works out to roughly 8 questions per person per day across 21 business days

The Founding Twenty

A founding member offer for the first 20 subscribers. As at 21 October 2026, 8 places remain (10 places were held for existing members). The offer closes at the first 20 subscribers or 14 November 2026, whichever comes first.

1. Three months on the tier above the one you pay for
2. Your price locked for the life of your subscription
3. Personal onboarding and monthly founding member webinars in the first 3 months
4. Direct access to technical support for the first month with your Smartie questions
5. The gaps you find and feedback you provide get dealt with first

Subscribe as normal at smartersmsf.com/smartie-ai and Smarter SMSF will apply your founding upgrade and confirm it by email. Your 3 months start the day you subscribe.

After the Founding Twenty: around mid-November, Smartie AI opens to everyone. New subscribers start on Starter with a 14-day free trial (credit card required), then have a conversation with the team to work out which tier suits the firm.

3.3 User Permissions — No More Parent and Child

The old parent and child accounts are gone. Access now sits with the person, and is set by one nominated administrator.

• Account Holder — one person per firm. Holds the subscription
• Administrator — one person, and it does not have to be the Account Holder. Sets what everyone else can do

What the administrator switches on, person by person:

• Access the stored credit card
• View team completed and saved orders (and reassign or progress them)
• Add and remove team members
• Transfer records
• Submit orders — or not

Why it matters: following the 1 July AML changes, several clients asked for certain users to be able to prepare orders but not submit them until the firm's AML team has completed the CDD checks and authorised release. With Submit switched off, the submit button is hidden for that user. They save the order and send a notification to the person who reviews and approves it.

3.4 Three Things the Administrator Manages

All in one place, under Admin Console › User Management.

1. User permissions — who sees the card, who sees team orders, who can add or remove people, transfer records or submit orders. Find out more about the Users Tab via User Help Guide.
2. A stored credit card — add and store a card for document orders. This is separate from My Account, which handles your subscription, so it only relates to orders (mainly company orders, and AML charges where CDD is completed by Smarter SMSF). On an order form, users with access see the stored card by its last digits and can submit the order against it. Find out more about the Credit Card Tab via Credit Card Help Guide.
3. Team members and their records — add or remove people, including the ability to move their completed orders to one or more team members, one order at a time or all of them. This works for a departing team member and for simply moving a fund from one person to another

Removing a user: if the user holds documents, the console prompts you to reassign them first. The transferred document then sits in the new person's profile and their completed orders.

Practitioner tip: permissions are particularly useful for firms with offshore, junior or admin staff, so you can control who does what at each step of an order, including AML checks and incorporations versus ABN and TFN registrations.

3.5 Coming Next — Every Subscription in One Place

Permissions are currently focused on the Documents platform. Next, they split by section so that one administrator sets who gets what across all four parts of the platform, on one screen, without asking Smarter SMSF:

Each section keeps its own permission set, with a count of who has access at the top. A prototype was shown in the webinar, and it will be demonstrated live in the next update.

4. Document Updates

Division 296 elections: the elections relate to 30 June 2026 market valuations. Smarter SMSF has built minutes, templates, resolutions and declarations, but the ATO is creating its own form and guidance is expected in December. Beyond getting valuations done, nothing can be implemented until the ATO's expectations are known.

5. Coming Soon

5.1 Key Projects — Status Update

Timeframes are indicative and may change as testing progresses.

6. CPD & Education

6.1 Delivered Since July

Four new sessions have been added to the Learn platform, all available on demand:

6.2 SMSF Advanced Course

Released module by module, so you can take the topic you need without waiting for the whole course.

• Advanced SMSF LRBA Compliance (first module) — expected early November 2026
• Division 296 tax — underway, expected by end of 2026

Timeframes are indicative and may change as content is finalised.

6.3 Pathways Course — Mapped to the SSA

Alongside the Advanced modules, Smarter SMSF is building a Pathways course mapped to the SMSF Specialist Advisor (SSA) requirements. Parts of the Essentials course already satisfy the SSA, and the Advanced modules are being built to fill the gaps. The result will be four courses: Foundations, Essentials, Advanced and Pathways, with Pathways blending Essentials and Advanced for people working towards specialist status.

6.4 Upcoming Events

These are the final two CPD sessions for the year. Full details: smartersmsf.com/events

6.5 Video Series on YouTube

Subscribe to the Smarter SMSF YouTube channel for the weekly Feeling Smarter series and the new Smartie Snippets videos, which show how Smartie handles a specific topic (for example, advice dealing with loss of capacity, and starting a pension within the licensing framework). The Smartie AI launch video is also there.

View YouTube Channel

Click here to review previous Release Notes