SMSF Association outgoing chief executive Andrea Slattery says the changes will not be as damaging as suggested by some commentators.

“There should be no reason why the new super changes or those particular caps are going to, in any way, detrimentally affect the SMSF or super system,” Ms Slattery said during the media conference to announce she is stepping down as managing director.

“They need not to panic, they need to find the right advice and have confidence in their advisers,” she added.

While there has been broad media coverage about the introduction of the concessional and non-concessional caps, Ms Slattery said many of the positive changes have been forgotten.

“What people didn’t realise was that there were 13 changes in total and only three that really got talked about,” she said.

“Women and people with broken workforce patterns will soon have access to have that five-year catch-up period [and] people now have the opportunity to contribute to their spouse balances. There were so many good things that were in the budget.”

Despite the backlash that followed the announcement of the reforms, SMSF Association chairman Andrew Gale said super remains the most attractive retirement-saving vehicle.

“All the analysis we’ve done indicates superannuation is still by far and away the preferred accumulation and drawdown mechanism,” he said.