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2 out of 4 Trustee are not prepared to sign the Trustee representation letter. As an auditor I'm in dilemma what to do.
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Personally, if we are talking an individual Trustees (ie. not a Corporate Trustee), I would like ALL Trustees tosign the Trustee Representation Letter. With all the litigation against Auditors, it's too easy for a Trustee to say they didn't realise what was going on and in the case of a loss to the Fund, guess who they try and blame. As for the Financials, I agree that at least half of the Trustees need to sign.
Hi Ishwar
Section 35B of SIS requires the financial statements to be signed by at least 2 trustees if there is 2 or more.
As a result arguably you could still sign your audit report if only 2 of the 4 trustees have signed the year end documents including the trustee representation letter. Sometimes it is impractical to get every trustee to sign documents so the rule in Section 35B can be used to allow just 2 trustees to sign documents such as financial statements (& trustee representation letters).
If you are still concerned you could also raise it with all the trustees in a management letter.
Other auditors may have concerns re not all trustees signing the trustee representation letter so it would be great if anyone else has a view as to how they would approach such an issue.
Thanks
SMSF AAA