The great majority of people in an industry or retail super fund will need or want to change funds at least once in their lives. By doing so, it can trigger a number of negative impacts on these members. We detail how SMSFs are positioned to meet the needs of members having to make changes to their super and the flexibility and protections offered to them.

This article was developed and supplied by Heffron Managing Director, Meg Heffron. Meg has been working exclusively with SMSFs since 1998. Her firm specialises in all aspects of SMSFs – administration, actuarial, education, technical support and documents. They have an extensive range of content and CPD certified education (including specialised courses) for advisers and accountants looking to learn more about superannuation and SMSFs (www.heffron.com.au)

Summary:

• A SMSF is truly the one fund that can genuinely be called a “fund for life”.
• For many reasons, anyone with a retail or industry fund, there is a good chance they will move super funds at least once – and probably several times during their lifetime.
• In contrast, someone with an SMSF can change pretty much everything about their fund without actually moving to an entirely new SMSF.
• Moving from one super fund trustee to a new trustee triggers capital gains tax. In an SMSF, the owner of the investments (the SMSF trustee) stays the same so there’s no capital gains tax.
• And it’s not just investments. An SMSF can change all its suppliers – the accountant or administrator, auditor, tax agent, insurer and more – without forcing the member to change super funds.
• There are sometimes very useful tax rules or other concessions that are lost by moving funds.