I have been writing about, or working in or on the sidelines of the financial services industry for 30 years now, and the regulator and the advising industry are still, in 2017, grappling with how Australians make investment decisions and the influential role that advisers and financial organisations hold in ... Read more
SMSF investment: Three most popular asset classes, and the rest
Note: We regularly update this article with the latest data on self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) released by the Australian Taxation Office. This article contains the latest data available up to February 2017 (for data on SMSF growth as at December 2016, and for asset allocation data as at September ... Read more
Accessing super early: Living overseas and reached preservation age
Q: I’m an expat Australian, and I have been living in Europe for quite a few years. I am 57 and I want to access my superannuation to buy a property. Is that possible? I have no idea if I will retire back in Australia or stay here, but my view is that if I do retire back in Australia, I will sell the property to fund ... Read more
SMSF borrowing: Fix related party LRBAs by 31 January 2017, or risk 47% tax
Note: This article deals specifically with SMSF limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) financed by related parties, rather than financial organisations. For fixing related party LRBAs, the ATO extended the final date to 31 January 2017 (previously 30 June 2016). If you’re seeking general information on SMSF ... Read more
Non-cash contributions, CGT and contributions caps
Q: My husband and I, both near 50, plan to spend around $700,000 of our cash to buy shares soon. We don’t have a trust structure or company (both PAYG) and wondered how/if we could buy them in the name of our self-managed super fund? How do we get the cash from our names to the super fund? I’ve read about in-specie ... Read more
Know your super limits: Reducing CGT via concessional contributions
Q: I am one of those people (and my wife) who made the decision years ago to invest in property rather than super. Now at 60, (wife 57) I am retired and live off my property investments. I would like to get rid of the properties at about age 65. Mainly because of the worry, and maintenance upkeep, and to give us more ... Read more
Comparing super funds: Which fund has the largest property allocation?
Q: Do you know if anyone publishes a list of the largest super funds in Australia, and also possibly by amount allocated to the property sector?We have similar questions to your own on our website that we have published over the past few months, and the links for the most relevant articles are set out below: ... Read more
Government’s green light on SMSF borrowing, with conditions
On 20 October 2015, the Liberal government confirmed that SMSF borrowing, through the use of limited recourse borrowing arrangements, continues to remain a legitimate financing option for SMSFs. Note that in April 2016 however, the ATO released guidelines flagging the expected demise of LRBAs financed by related ... Read more
SMSF investment: Borrowing to invest can be the means, not the end
As a property and share investor for nearly 30 years, I believe the use of borrowing can be a legitimate means to purchase assets, but gearing is not an investment in itself: it is simply a means to invest with associated costs and extra risk.Over the years, I have spoken to thousands of Australians about super and ... Read more
SMSF borrowing: Investing in property (what’s OK and NOT OK)
If you run a self-managed superannuation fund, you can invest in all types of real property, including residential property, commercial property, industrial property and even a farm (under certain circumstances).Before September 2007, the capacity to use borrowed money to purchase an SMSF asset, such as real ... Read more
Revisited: Is property a good investment for your SMSF?
In the past few months, we have received a higher-than-normal number of emails seeking information about investing in property via an SMSF. In response to this upturn in interest, I have revisited the question, is property a good investment for your SMSF?Previously, I have written that I have lost count of the ... Read more
SMSF investment: Where can I find information about SMSF borrowing?
Q: I’ve just finished reading DIY Super For Dummies and found it really helpful. What interested me was the borrowing options for SMSFs. We already own a property in our fund and we are looking at using borrowings for financing our next fund purchase. In your book you mention a joint venture to invest in property with ... Read more
