6. Operational Safeguards: Secure Access to Devices and Accounts

When an SMSF decides to hold crypto, the conversation usually starts with the exciting bits, such as which assets to buy, which exchange has the cleanest reporting, whether the investment strategy can justify the exposure. But there’s an unglamorous layer sitting underneath all of that, and is the operational safeguards.

This is about how trustees actually access the fund’s assets day-to-day. Every login, every click, every email that links into your SMSF is a potential weak spot. Auditors are increasingly asking not just “do you own the assets?” but “can you prove the fund has secure, exclusive control of them?” If you can’t show that devices and accounts are locked down, you’ve got a compliance problem as much as a security one.