Monday
Apr072008
Who is Looking After Your Self Managed Super Fund?
By Jason Fittler
Self Managed Super Funds are in my view the most effective way to provide for your retirement. But you do need to make sure the right person is looking after your SMSF and you. But who is the right person? Normally you have a lawyer set up the trust deed, an accountant complete the compliance returns for the ATO and a financial adviser look after your investments.
Have your ever heard the phrase “To many cooks spoil the broth”? This is true for SMSF. The fact is as a Trustee of your SMSF you have certain legal requirements which you must comply with. When you’re receiving advice from many different professionals you can be sure of one thing, somewhere, somehow, something will get missed. In my experience these three parties do not communicate well between each other, nor do they clearly define what each professional’s role actually is. Again this leads to errors, errors which the Trustee will be held accountable for.
The other major issue is normally you’re Lawyer and Accountant do not specialise in SMSF, as such they are commonly not up to date with the most current laws and rules in relation to SMSF. Below is an email I received from an accountant in regards to the new account based pensions.
“ our previous calcs pro rataed the 10% maximum, and the new legislation omits the requirement to do that (an oversight by the drafters that has benefited members!) so we have not now pro rataed the 10% maximum”.
In this email the accountant has made a mistake in the preparation of the client’s financial statements, a mistake which we picked up. This mistake would have limited the amount of money the client would have had to live on. They then tried to cover up this mistake by blaming the people who drafted the legislation. The legislation was drafted correctly.
I am not pointing out this error to have a go at the accountant in question but merely to highlight the fact that when you are dealing with a SMSF it pays to make sure the experts are looking after all aspects of the SMSF. You need someone who specializes in SMSF from the setting up of the Trust Deeds, tax compliance and looking after your investments.
If you are thinking about using a SMSF it will pay to look around and find an adviser who can look after all aspects of running a SMSF. Call us on (07) 4771 4577.
Self Managed Super Funds are in my view the most effective way to provide for your retirement. But you do need to make sure the right person is looking after your SMSF and you. But who is the right person? Normally you have a lawyer set up the trust deed, an accountant complete the compliance returns for the ATO and a financial adviser look after your investments.
Have your ever heard the phrase “To many cooks spoil the broth”? This is true for SMSF. The fact is as a Trustee of your SMSF you have certain legal requirements which you must comply with. When you’re receiving advice from many different professionals you can be sure of one thing, somewhere, somehow, something will get missed. In my experience these three parties do not communicate well between each other, nor do they clearly define what each professional’s role actually is. Again this leads to errors, errors which the Trustee will be held accountable for.
The other major issue is normally you’re Lawyer and Accountant do not specialise in SMSF, as such they are commonly not up to date with the most current laws and rules in relation to SMSF. Below is an email I received from an accountant in regards to the new account based pensions.
“ our previous calcs pro rataed the 10% maximum, and the new legislation omits the requirement to do that (an oversight by the drafters that has benefited members!) so we have not now pro rataed the 10% maximum”.
In this email the accountant has made a mistake in the preparation of the client’s financial statements, a mistake which we picked up. This mistake would have limited the amount of money the client would have had to live on. They then tried to cover up this mistake by blaming the people who drafted the legislation. The legislation was drafted correctly.
I am not pointing out this error to have a go at the accountant in question but merely to highlight the fact that when you are dealing with a SMSF it pays to make sure the experts are looking after all aspects of the SMSF. You need someone who specializes in SMSF from the setting up of the Trust Deeds, tax compliance and looking after your investments.
If you are thinking about using a SMSF it will pay to look around and find an adviser who can look after all aspects of running a SMSF. Call us on (07) 4771 4577.
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