When inheriting from friends not family

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It’s not often that a person gets the chance to inherit the estate of someone who is not a member of their family.  But it does happen and has its

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Life insurance estate-planning trap with proposal to transfer small accounts

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The Government’s Budget proposal to strengthen the ATO-led consolidation regime by requiring the transfer of all inactive superannuation accounts where the balances are below $6,000 to the ATO.  The aim

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Borrowing by SMSFs is under attack

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Changes to APRA standards have moved the goal posts for SMSFs borrowing to buy real estate. The problem is we’re late in the second half. Acquiring property through a SMSF

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SMSFs as ‘wholesale clients’ or ‘sophisticated investors

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It can be beneficial sometimes for an SMSF to be considered a ‘wholesale client’ or a ‘sophisticated investor’ in order to get access to investments that might not be open

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Tips and traps appointing a corporate trustee for an SMSF

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There are very few SMSF specialists who don’t think that having a company as the trustee of the fund is preferable to having the members act as trustees individually. But

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Auditor says ‘safe harbour’ terms are mandatory – what now?

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Would an SMSF trustee decision not to adopt the safe harbour terms from the ATO’s Guidelines in relation to a related party loan breach the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act SIS

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Further developments on double stamp duty provisions for SMSF borrowing to buy property in NSW

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Last year in September we wrote about changes to section 18 of the NSW Duties Act which appeared to provide more flexibility to SMSFs borrowing to buy investment property and

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Best to start LRBA in SMSF before July

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The proposal to include LRBA debt in total super balance is an incentive to start an LRBA before 1 July 2018 as existing LRBAs will be grandfathered. The proposal that

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Family trusts – a growing force in the Australian economy

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Family trusts have always been an important structure for business planning, tax planning and estate planning, mainly due to their tax efficiency, asset protection, flexibility and succession possibilities. Increasingly, they

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Appointing a reversionary beneficiary

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We often get asked by clients, can a reversionary beneficiary be nominated after a pension has commenced? However, before nominating a reversionary beneficiary it is important to examine who can

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