Self Managed Super Fund Advice-on-Demand
There are three main stages of managing a Self Managed Super Fund (SMSF) and depending upon what part of the journey you're in, your needs may be very different.
We find people new to their SMSF journey are usually at one of three main stages;
- Establishment - Setting up their SMSF
- Administration - Annual Tax and Auditing
- Investment Advice - Documenting the SMSF's investment strategy and managing fund liquidity risks, for lumpy investment assets.
The Sole Purpose Test
All SMSFs need to comply with the sole purpose test, which requires the super fund to be run for the sole purpose of providing retirement benefits for members. Your SMSF needs to meet the sole purpose test to be eligible for the tax concessions normally available to super funds.
The sole purpose test applies to all super funds, not just SMSFs.
- The sole purpose test is essentially related to providing retirement or death benefits for, or in relation to, SMSF members.
- Specified ancillary purposes, which relate to the provision of benefits on the cessation of a member’s employment and other death benefits and approved benefits not specified under the core purpose.
You can read more about how it relates to SMSFs at the ATO website here.
Our Focus
An SMSF allows you to actively manage your own superannuation investments for your retirement. While SMSFs can potentially provide members with far more control and flexibility than big super funds, that doesn’t mean it’s open slather. Breaking the rules can be costly and without ongoing professional advice, most Trustees would struggle to maintain an SMSF.
At Sapience Financial, we specialise in post-establishment SMSF investment advice.
- We focus on SMSF liquidity insurances for funds that may have purchased 'lumpy' investment assets, like property, and
- We focus on maintaining accurate SMSF investment strategy documentation after an SMSF fund has been established.
Ongoing Advice
Sapience provides advice-on-demand services for SMSF Trustees who don't necessarily wish to pay an annual ongoing retainer fee for a financial adviser, but who wish to engage our professional services on a fee-for-service basis, using our advice-on-demand service.
Regulation 4.09, of the SIS Regulations, asks you to consider diversification, not to be diverse. Similar to the insurance consideration, an SMSF is not required to hold life insurance. It just has to consider whether it should. The ATO asks trustees to have their investment strategy ready for their SMSF's auditor for their next audit.
SMSF Trustees need to consider diversity in their Investment Strategy, consider the fund's Liquidity Needs each year, and evidence to their SMSF Auditor that they're running a complying fund and up-to-date with all regulation changes.
- For SMSF clients using our Investment Strategy and Documentation service, we provide clients with meeting minutes for the Trustees to sign and file for their auditor's review as necessary.
- For SMSF clients using our Liquidity Insurance Management service, we provide clients with meeting minutes for the Trustees to sign and file for their auditor's review as necessary.
How we can help
Having a clearly documented strategy for your SMSF is an important part of providing for yourself and your family into retirement while you plan to increase your investment returns to sustain your retirement. Managing its ongoing updates and refinements, while making sure the fund's liquidity needs, enables it to meet the retirement needs of the SMSF members.
Contact us for a confidential chat about your SMSF needs.
