Category: Feature Archives

SMSF practitioners are not very comfortable with the idea of non-arm’s length income or NALI. This said, NALI can pan out rather well for the SMSF trustees and arguments can be given in favour of such a statement.

In a large number of cases, the process of setting up an SMSF does not include a Product Disclosure Agreement (PDS). Allow me to reflect on this statement. A public offer fund (or a retail offer fund) comes with a PDS which pre-stipulates the rules that the members of the fund will need to follow. This same can hardly be followed by SMSF members because in effect, it would mean a member providing himself with a document that showcases how to run his own fund.

SMSF is lucrative for various reasons. Among them, flexibility, control and cost are certainly on the top of the minds of investors. This said, once SMSF investors set up a fund, it is not unheard of that they give up a part of their management control or end up paying a big amount in administration fees. This is where apps have been coming handy of late.

You might not be in a position to manage your self-managed super fund any more. Contrarily, you may have found it more practicable to move to foreign shores for two years or more. If such be the cases, you may find it very difficult to keep running your SMSF. Here are options you might consider.

A case that has recently come within public scrutiny deals with the binding death benefit nomination. It talks about how the present trustees (adult daughters) and former trustee (second wife) are battling over the estate and coming to grips with the exorbitant legal bills.

Auditors of Super funds report various SMSF contraventions to the ATO. Among them, breach of the arm’s length rule and unlawful separation of the personal asset-SMSF asset feature prominently. Super specialists feel that those SMSF owners who also own SMEs are more prone to making ‘ATO’ mistakes.