What is a self-managed super fund?

Setting up a SMSF means taking on the role of becoming either:

• an individual trustee of a super fund, or
• the director of a company set up to be the trustee of a super fund

Regulations allow up to four individual trustees or corporate trust directors, and once established all investment decisions, fund administration and regulatory compliance becomes the responsibility of those appointed trustees.

Sharing equal responsibilities of an SMSF allows trustees to actively manage the assets of the SMSF in the best interests of the retirement benefits of the members.

There are a number of considerations when deciding on what structure to adopt and working through the options with the guidance of a Wilson Teis professional will help you explore them fully.

Set up costs

Costs associated with setting up a company to act as a corporate trustee generally make this the more expensive option.

Administration and reporting

Corporate trustees have greater reporting obligations, but isolating SMSF assets from personal assets can be easier with a corporate trustee structure.

The audit and reporting requirements of individual trustees and corporate trustees are the same but the corporate trustee also has to report and pay fees annually to ASIC.

Trust changes

Succession can be simpler with a corporate trustee.

SMSF assets are held in the name of the trustees of the fund.

Since the corporate trust does not change if directors change then there are no time consuming and costly amendments required to ownership documents.