Of the many benefits of running your own SMSF, one of the major drawcards is the wider choice of investment strategies that can be established compared to a traditional super fund. Along with the safety of cash and term deposits, SMSFs can also directly invest in Australian and international shares, property trusts, ... Read more
SMSF investment rules: What every trustee should know
An SMSF is a very attractive superannuation savings vehicle but it also comes with plenty of responsibility for anyone that signs up to being a trustee. While most of the time people choose an SMSF because of the freedom of investment choice it provides, it’s important to understand the rules around what you can, and ... Read more
How to create an SMSF investment strategy (including examples)
Self-managed superannuation funds are required, under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993, “to formulate, review regularly and give effect to an investment strategy.” What is an SMSF investment strategy? That investment strategy needs to take into account the following things: The risk involved in ... Read more
Guide to transition to retirement pensions (TTRs or TRISs)
Transition to retirement income streams (or pensions) allow you to gradually draw on your super benefits while you’re still working and moving towards your retirement. They go by a variety of acronyms, including TTR and TRIS. For simplicity, we’ll use the TTR acronym in this article. There are different ways that you ... Read more
Guide to SMSF trust deeds
An SMSF trust deed is a legal document that outlines how the fund will be set up and how it will operate. An Australian SMSF must be established with a trust deed that is compliant with Australian superannuation legislation. Why is an SMSF trust deed necessary? An SMSF must be set up as a trust. A trust is a type of ... Read more
Death and taxes: Guide to superannuation death benefits
The two certainties in life, namely death and taxes, is an idiom that can mean different things to different people. For present purposes we take it to mean that death is inevitable and it is very difficult to (legitimately) avoid taxes. Tax cannot be avoided even by dying. Although under current law there is no tax ... Read more
What is a self-managed super fund (SMSF)?
As the name implies, an SMSF (also known as DIY super) is a private super fund that you manage yourself. SMSFs allow their members to have control over how their retirement savings are invested. According to the latest statistics from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), there are nearly 600,000 SMSFs in existence in ... Read more