The Fair and Sustainable Superannuation amendments will soon be upon us… but what to do next?

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Online legal documents provider, SUPERCentral, has produced a list of issues to consider and potentially action for superannuation clients by their accountants and advisers. The New Super Laws Checklist was produced in response to the ‘Fair and Sustainable Superannuation’ amendments that constitute the most significant change to superannuation in the last 10 years. “We produced

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22 Feb 2017

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Loan vs Gift? – the right way to help out your kids

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We all know that life’s pretty expensive living in Australia these days – especially if you have a hankering for buying residential real estate in a capital city. Plus, if you are “lucky” enough to get into the real estate market, that usually means that you’ve signed yourself up for an enormous mortgage for the

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07 Sep 2016

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What happens when both members of a SMSF die at the same time?

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It’s the call that every adviser dreads – the death of a client activates the estate planning toolkit of Will, Binding Death Benefit Nomination (“BDBN”) and reversionary nomination for SMSF pensions. But what if a husband and wife with their own SMSF both die in a car crash? At the same time? What is already

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01 Sep 2016

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Every SMSF member needs to put into place an Enduring Power of Attorney

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You may have seen coverage in the news of the Women and SMSFs report, jointly released by the CBA and the SMSF Association, indicating that more than half of SMSF members do not have an up-to-date Will or a succession plan. The research report surveyed 801 SMSF trustees, as well as 535 individuals without an

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16 Aug 2016

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Witnessing of Binding Death Benefit Nominations: One, two or none? What’s the story morning glory?

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Will all nominations lapse after 3 years? Must all nominations be witnessed by 2 independent witnesses (in the manner of a will)? The answers to these questions depends on whether the fund is an SMSF and whether or not the nomination is a lapsing or non-lapsing nomination. The story for SMSFs which have adopted the

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01 Aug 2016

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Family Trust as the New SMSF?

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Have the ‘ScoMo’ changes (which now seem likely to be implemented – subject to one or two minor changes) amounted to the demise of SMSFs as the preferred private wealth investment vehicle? Possibly this view is overstating the situation. Tax deductible contributions can only be made to superannuation funds: they cannot be made to family

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27 Jul 2016

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SMSF: Three questions commonly asked when establishing an SMSF corporate trustee

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We are regularly asked these three questions by clients either setting up a new fund with a new corporate trustee or wanting to change their trustees from individuals to a company. 1. Do I need a company secretary for my proprietary company? There is no obligation on a company to appoint a company secretary however,

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08 Jul 2016

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SUPERCentral launches estate planning training program

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What do financial planners and accountants have to do to meet the challenge of revenue loss resulting from government regulation and technological replacement of their customary roles? Financial planners are only now starting to grapple with the government-inspired loss of trail commission and the rise of fee-for-service, while accountants must face the prospect that an

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04 May 2015

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SUPERCentral provides access to new bundled documents

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SUPERCentral has been refining its SMSF deed processes over the past few months, and now provides several bundled document services at the same time as establishing or converting an SMSF including: company establishment change of trustee access to the new streamlined Macquarie Cash Management Account “These new bundled services provide real time efficiency via a convenient online documentation process which also provides for legal

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10 Nov 2014

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Estate planning is not just for the wealthy

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Over 2 million small business owners should take action One of the reasons people give for not sorting out their estate planning is that they don’t think they have enough assets to warrant an estate plan.  Most people are dead wrong about that. There are five documents that make up a basic estate plan: Will

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16 Oct 2014

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