Taking Control of your Superannuation
Establishing a Self-Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF) means that you are ready to take control of your own superannuation. Having an SMSF means:-
- You make the decisions regarding investments (with some restrictions) and maybe with some help from a Financial Advisor or Australian Financial Services License holder.
- You have total control (no more banks or life insurance companies dictating to you).
However, with control comes total responsibility. - You may have a broader range of investment alternatives available to you (including property)
- You and your spouse may be able to effectively combine your superannuation to create enhanced investment potential
An SMSF also means responsibility. The ATO will make life hard by making compliance hard and changing the rules! Ellco Group is here to help with these obligations and it is part of our ongoing training to be kept up to date with these SMSF changes.
The ATO has some useful videos in relation to Self-Managed Superannuation:
ATO Self-Managed Superannuation Videos 
Establishing a Self-Managed Superannuation Fund *
While establishing an SMSF is relatively straight-forward, care does need to be taken. Some questions and consequences are:-
- What happens to my existing life insurance (once lost it may be impossible to replace)?
- What happens if my existing superannuation is a Defined Benefit Fund – will I lose this type of guarantee?
- Who will be the trustee – individual trustees or corporate trustee?
- How do you manage roll-over from your existing superannuation?
- What are the costs – is it worth setting up an SMSF for a small fund balance?
- What are the compliance issues and much time do they take?
- What are the borrowing rules? What is limited recourse borrowing?
- What are the investment restrictions?
- What happens when I retire?
- How much tax is payable?
- What are the penalties if you get things wrong?
Ellco Group are here to guide you so you can have peace of mind that you are meeting all of your obligations and compliance requirements. While we are very happy to guide you in the process the ultimate decision regarding the establishment of an SMSF can only be made by you.
People Involved
We act as the “go between” the various people involved in establishing and maintaining your SMSF. The people that can be involved include:-
- Actuary – as you move into retirement it may be necessary to engage an actuary for pension calculations
- ATO – each year you need to lodge a tax return
- Auditor – by law each year the fund’s accounts need to independently audited
- Banker – if you are considering borrowing you may need to involve a bank or mortgage broker
- Financial Advisor – you may choose to engage a financial advisor to help with investment advice
- Lawyer – if you are considering property investment you will need to engage a solicitor to help with the property conveyance
- Life Insurance Agent – you may decide to purchase life insurance inside your fund
- Real Estate Agent – to help you select a property
- Stockbroker – if you are interested in buying shares
We help co-ordinate all of these people so you can enjoy the many benefits of an SMSF.
While we act as the “go between” – you must understand that you are the sole decision maker.
* Ellco Group does not hold an Australian Financial Services License. Accordingly, we will not be providing any personal advice in relation self-managed superannuation funds SMSF (including establishing a SMSF, contributing to or drawing a benefit from an SMSF or any investment decision by an SMSF trustee). Our advice will be strictly limited to providing you as much factual information about superannuation as we possibly can. However, the ultimate decision making person is you – we will not try to coerce or influence you at all (in fact by law we are prohibited from providing this sort of recommendation or opinion).