The retirement industry in Australia is second to none in the world. It forces us to save money in a very comfortable way, a way that doesn’t impact our disposable income, so we all have a big pool of money to live off in retirement.
One of the things I always despise about our retirement industry though, is the way superannuation funds take control of the investment decisions away from me. It is my money, yet I cannot make any investment decisions. The situation has improved over the years, but it is still not good enough. For this reason I set up my own Self Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF).
Without getting into the legalities of it, an SMSF is a legal structure where you take on the management and administration responsibilities of your superannuation money yourself. Once you set up an SMSF, there are a number of responsibilities which need to be taken care of. You can be as involved as you like with these responsibilities, or outsource where you think it is appropriate. These responsibilities are as follows:
1. Your Trustee Responsibilities. Someone needs to legally own the assets of the fund. This is the trustee. The trustee is also responsible for the running of the fund, so if anything goes wrong, it is the trustee who is legally liable.
2. Administration – The administrator looks after all the book keeping and accounting responsibilities. They will prepare and lodge the annual tax returns and documents and ensure all the accounts balance at the end of each financial year.
3. Audit – The auditor looks over all the accounts prepared by the administrator to ensure they comply with the existing superannuation and tax law. A successful audit will mean you maintain your status as a complying superannuation fund, so you can continue to receive the superannuation tax benefits.
d) Investing the money. Superannuation is retirements savings. Someone needs to make all the investment decisions within the superannuation regulations, in a way which maximises the future retirement benefits of its members.
In my situation, all I wanted was control over the investments. I wanted to manage where my money was invested and how much was invested. That way I always knew how much I had in my accounts (as opposed to waiting for the big surprise when my annual statement arrived) and I could feel comfortable knowing that my returns were well earned. They were my responsibility, so in the bad years when my investments fell, at least I wouldn’t get frustrated that I had no control. It also afforded me the luxury of managing my superannuation investment as part of my estate rather than as a separate entity. This meant my entire portfolio was significantly more balanced, which is crucial for long term financial success.
All other responsibilities I outsourced. To me, they were time consuming tasks which were better undertaken by experts in the relative fields. This left me with more time to research and make investment decisions.
Gnifrus Urquart enjoys controlling his retirement savings, as well as the freedom outsourcing his Self Managed Super Fund Administration affords him.
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