SMSFs shun corporate trustees

Self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) are shifting away from corporate trustees with 95 per cent of new funds having individual trustees, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) reveals.

Of the more than one million SMSFs in Australia, 78 per cent had individual trustees at 30 June 2015, marking a four per cent decline in the proportion of SMSFs using a corporate trustee over the last three years.

The ATO reported that SMSFs accounted for 29 per cent ($590 billion) of the $2 trillion total superannuation assets as at 30 June 2015.

SMSFs with two members continue to be the dominant structure of the sector, representing 70 per cent of funds, at 30 June 2014, with single member funds accounting for 23 per cent.

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The report found that 40 per cent of SMSF members were fully or partially in the pension phase, in June 2014, up from 32 per cent in 2010, with five per cent of those receiving pension payments from their SMSF reporting that they were also receiving the Age Pension.

The report said auditor contravention reports were made in relation to two per cent of SMSFs, at 30 June 2015, with the most commonly reported contraventions relating to loans or financial assistance to members (22 per cent), while in-house assets and separation of assets constituted 19 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.

"For the year ended 30 June 2014, 53 per cent of SMSFs reported they were solely in the accumulation phase, with the remaining 47 per cent reporting they were making pension payments to some or all members, and so were considered to be in the pension phase," the ATO report said.

"Of SMSFs that paid a pension to their members for the first time (22,000 SMSFs each year) on average 2,800 SMSFs were in their first year of operation.

"Of SMSFs that started pension payments in 2014, approximately 48 per cent were over five years old; 28 per cent were under two years old (of which 10 per cent were in their first year of operation); and 25 per cent between two and five years."