Self Managed Super Funds (SMSFs)

Self Managed Superannuation Funds (SMSF) can provide tax effective vehicles for you to accumulate and transfer wealth.

A SMSF is a fund with less than five members. Each member is also a trustee of the fund (alternatively the fund can have a corporate trustee structure with each member being a director of the trustee company).

Some of the other key features of an SMSF are:

• A SMSF must be maintained for the sole purpose of providing benefits to members upon their retirement.
• Trustees are required to prepare and implement an investment strategy for their fund. This controls the way contributions are invested with wide flexibility in investment choice, for example, direct property, managed investments and direct shares can all be included in the portfolio.
• Approved auditors must be appointed and tax agents, accountants and financial advisers may also be involved in the running of an SMSF, and
• Ultimate legal responsibility rests with the individual trustees (ie the members of the fund) even if assistance is outsourced to the above professionals.

Given the right circumstances, a SMSF has the potential to provide you with a powerful and tax effective wealth accumulation vehicle, whilst at the same time giving you considerable flexibility and control over your retirement investment affairs.

SMSF’s can be more cost effective than other options but only in situations where the amounts held in those funds are of a sufficient size to benefit from economies of scale.

At Griffin Financial Advisory, we will only recommend the establishment of a SMSF in situations where we can clearly demonstrate how you can obtain significant long-term value from establishing such a fund. See our SMSF FAQs for answers on both SMSFs and Superannuation in general.

The following are some frequently asked questions in relation to Self Managed Super Funds (SMSFs) and Superannuation in general:

If you would like more information, please Contact Us.