I believe it is essential to have a company as trustee and the option to have individual trustees is short-sighted and could be costly long-term.
Over 70% of existing SMSF’s and 90% of new funds set up in recent years have individual trustees yet if you talk to SMSF specialist advisors they cringe at these statistics and recommend a corporate trustee in most circumstances. Indeed a survey I did of my SMSF colleagues on LinkedIn last year resulted in over 90% favouring corporate trustees with some harrowing tales of the mess left by individual trustees.
The obvious advantages include:
- Having a corporate trustee for your self-managed super fund will save you time, money and stress in the long-term.
- It can also save future heartache for your family when you pass away, not to mention the executor of your will.
- With greater asset protection, higher LVRs in borrowing and more efficient administration, it also adds to the bottom-line.
But that is really only the tip of the iceberg…
Liam Shorte is Macro Investor’s respected SMSF specialist. To read this rest of this weekly guide to SMSF management, take up a free trial at Macro Investor.