an investment strategy, follow special investment rules, and choose investments that can deliver you a retirement benefit when you finish work. If you know nothing about investing, I don’t believe a DIY super fund is the place to begin your investment classes. I take you through what you need to consider when investing your DIY super monies in Part IV of this book.
Compliance calls
Complying with the super rules may not be as sexy as investing your super assets, but if you get the compliance side right, everything else is likely to fall into place. Make sure you understand the rules relating to setting up and administering your SMSF. You can expect fairly onerous administration, reporting and tax requirements – what I call your ‘DIY Super CART’ (Compliance, Administration, Reporting, Tax management). Are you up to it? You can find out what CART involves in Part III of this book.
Commitment issues
Are you attracted to DIY super by your love of responsibility, and the honour of taking control of your super savings? Unlike professional trustees, you’re not permitted to receive payment for your task. Running your own SMSF is a long-term commitment – at least until you retire … and longer if your fund is going to provide you with a pension, or your children with superannuation benefits. Are you that committed?
Many DIY super trustees have a confidence about them that’s related to success in some part of their life, usually in financial matters. From my experience, DIY super trustees are independent-minded individuals who have achieved success in work, or in investments, which reinforces that running their own super fund is the right fit.
What Does a DIY Super Fund Look Like?
When investment markets fall dramatically, Australian investors often take a greater interest in the DIY super structure. Some individuals believe they can achieve better investment returns on their super money than the professionals, or can do it more cheaply, or perhaps they believe: ‘If someone is going to be losing my money I’d rather it be me!’
Your history may close the door to SMSF
Have you ever been convicted of an offence involving dishonesty? I’m not playing truth or dare: This question is important if you’re considering running your own super fund.
Your character and your financial acumen are important considerations when deciding if you’re a suitable person to be a self-managed super fund trustee.
An individual can’t be a SMSF trustee if he is a ‘disqualified person’: For example, an individual with a conviction involving dishonesty, or an individual who is an ‘undischarged bankrupt’. If you’ve been declared bankrupt, you’re not permitted to be a super fund trustee until your bankruptcy is discharged.
If you’ve ever been convicted of an offence involving dishonesty, then forget about becoming a trustee of a SMSF.
The types of dishonesty offences that would deem individuals as ‘disqualified persons’ are fraud-related, such as attempting to gain financial benefit by deception from the government, which may include something as simple as giving false information on your tax return, although offences that involve time in prison are most likely to exclude you from running a SMSF.
I explain who can, and can’t, become a trustee of a SMSF in Chapter 8.
Markets may go up, or down, but when you run your own super fund you’re never off duty when keeping your DIY super fund on the right side of the super laws.
✔ Contributions, including salary sacrificing (see Chapter 4).
✔ Taxation (see Chapters 13, 18 and 19).
✔ Investments (see Part IV).
✔ Benefit payments (see Part V).
Take your pick – the ATO or APRA
Very few people realise you can actually choose from two types of DIY super fund:
✔ Self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF): The ATO regulates this type of DIY super fund. A SMSF is run by the fund members in their role as trustees. Your fund must satisfy basic conditions to be considered a SMSF (see ‘Satisfying the SMSF definition’, later in this chapter).
✔ Small APRA fund: The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) regulates this type of DIY super fund. APRA oversees the soundness of financial institutions and super funds (with the exception of SMSFs, which are regulated by the ATO). A small APRA fund is run by a trustee that holds an RSE licence – that is, a professional trustee approved by APRA. All super trustees of non-SMSFs must hold such a licence. RSE stands for registrable superannuation entity.
Leading the charge with SMSFs
SMSFs are by far the most popular type of DIY super fund, with 534,000-plus SMSFs in operation compared to just over 2,700 small APRA funds, as at June 2014 (figures released in September 2014).
SMSFs have enjoyed stellar growth in the past decade or so.
