SUPERCentral News
In the case of Estate of Helen Marsella (aka the "Swanson Superannuation Fund Case") [2019] VSC 65, the Victorian Supreme Court has overturned the trustees' death benefit allocation decision. The Court found that the decision of the SMSF trustees was defective and the Court removed the trustees from their office. Undoubtedly, this decision will be closely read by SMSF advisers and is likely to be a leading case on death benefit allocation decisions.
In this case, the Supreme Court of Queensland was asked to authorise the making of a statutory will for a severely injured child. The child, who is aged 30, has no capacity to make a will due to severe brain injuries arising from medical negligence occurring during birth.
If you have funds that are still in catch-up mode or are on different deeds, talk to us about our bulk SMSF deed conversion program. This will ensure that your trustees have all the necessary powers to comprehensively and legally administer their funds and remain SIS compliant into the future - safeguarding them against potential legal, tax problems and associated penalties.
We are often asked to provide a signed copy of a fund's deed, usually at a time when it is of utmost importance, such as the death of a member or being required by a 3rd party for any number of reasons. Original signed documents can become misplaced or hard to track down as funds move advisers. In order to alleviate these issues, an electronic copy should always be stored.
The inherent conflict between the roles of administrator of a deceased estate and a potential beneficiary of a death benefit has been highlighted again in a recent WA case.
A NSW taxpayer has obtained a remarkable victory over the NSW Office of State Revenue (OSR) in a land transfer duty case.
How can Ask.Will help you as an adviser not just build an estate planning offering into your practice as an additional profit centre (well, that's certainly a worthy cause in itself!) but to also get to know your client and their family better - and thereby help you to service your client better as well?
The ATO has just published its quarterly statistical report for self managed superannuation funds. The report is based upon the December 2018 financial quarter.
While the Morrison Government is proceeding with its proposal to permit Jumbo SMSFs with 5 or 6 members, will Jumbo SMSFs have to have a company as trustee? This answer is determined by the legislation of the state or territory which applies to the SMSF.
The ATO has just released some of the key super thresholds which will apply for the 2019/20 financial year.
The wheels are turning for the next update of the SUPERCentral Governing Rules and the process will soon commence.
Legislation to ensure that Reversionary Transition to Retirement Income Streams (TRISs) will not be precluded from transferring to a nominated reversionary beneficiary simply because the nominated reversionary beneficiary is not in retirement phase has now received Royal Assent and is in operation.
Draft legislation has been released to correct, amongst other things, two unintended drafting errors arising from the "Fair and Sustainable" Superannuation changes of 2017.
The proposal, announced in the May 2018 Budget, has now been introduced as draft legislation. The proposal is to amend the definition of "self managed superannuation fund" in s17A of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 by the simple device of changing "fewer than 5 members" with "fewer than 7 members". This change, if enacted, will apply from 1 July 2019.
The ATO has advised that from early March 2019 its policy as to the issue of Notices of Compliance for newly established SMSFs will radically change – for the better! Under the new policy, the ATO will issue a Notice of Compliance within a few weeks of a new SMSF first being registered with the ATO.
If you believed the press DIY superannuation is all but finished. Don't believe the press. Even with the proposed limiters superannuation still remains a very efficient and attractive structure for your retirement planning, and particularly self managed superannuation.
Two key issues on Superannuation from the Hayne Royal Commission were Agency Conflict and Invisibility of Fees (especially for no service). These two issues could be summarised as essentially poor and conflicted governance.
Since its introduction, Limited Recourse Borrowing Arrangement (LRBA) has served many Australians to buy real property in their SMSF. We have seen an increase in the number of SMSFs that have repaid the loans and are unwinding the arrangements.
We have also seen a surge in demand from clients in relation to unwinding their clients' limited recourse borrowing arrangements, which is the process of winding up the holding (bare) trust and transferring title to the property from the holding trustee to the fund trustee(s) once the loan is repaid.
Queensland is many things. It also seems to be the place to be for litigation involving self managed superannuation funds and binding death benefit nominations. Adding to the current Queensland SMSF cases of Donovan v Donovan, McIntosh v McIntosh and Munro v Munro is the John Giles Superannuation Fund Case (aka Re Narumon Pty Ltd [2018] QSC 185). This case, which was handed down in August, involved a number of issues - including the validity of binding death benefit nominations - related to self managed superannuation funds.