About our governing rules
DBA Lawyers is Australia’s leading SMSF law firm. We have been refining our SMSF governing rules and related documents for well over 30 years, making it the best SMSF rules available. Our SMSF governing rules contain numerous ‘value-added’ advantages that are not available in most other offerings. Additionally, our SMSF rules also come with a product disclosure statement (PDS), binding death benefit nomination (BDBN) template and other helpful resolutions, tools and instruction.
For more information on some of the strategic reasons why our SMSF documents are so highly regarded, click here. Further, click here to order rules for a new SMSF or click here to order new rules for an existing SMSF.
Do your SMSF rules need updating?
An up-to-date set of rules for an SMSF is necessary to implement the latest strategies and to ensure compliance with the latest legal and practical changes. It is also best practice for advisers to use up-to-date rules for ease of administration for their SMSF clients and to maximise strategic flexibility and minimise risk.
After law reform
When there are major law or regulatory policy changes, SMSF rules may require an update to ensure ongoing compliance and flexibility to implement new measures. If you do not know what law reform has occurred since you last adopted rules for your fund, click here for an updated year-by-year summary of the key SMSF-related law reforms over the last 20 years.
Given there are regular developments and changes (including legislative, regulatory, practical and strategic) occurring on an ongoing basis, we generally recommend that an SMSF’s rules be updated on at least a 5-yearly cycle.
Before major decisions
Even when the rules of an SMSF have recently been updated, they should be reviewed in detail before any major decision is implemented, to ensure that decision can be implemented in accordance with the rules. Instances where SMSF rules can easily fail to support trustees include commencing pensions, making substantial contributions including downsizer contributions, BDBNs or entering into limited recourse borrowing arrangements.
Similarly, the rules, no matter how ‘new’, should be considered carefully when engaging in estate planning or making BDBNs.
We are pleased to review and provide comments on whether a specific SMSF requires any updates to its rules to achieve certain outcomes.
Annual Update Service
Clients on our Annual Update Service receive at least one update each year with information pertaining to any recent regulatory changes and are provided with the option to adopt our resulting version of best practice rules. This service provides a convenient and sound way of ensuring that these SMSFs have the ability to provide their members and trustees maximised strategic flexibility, compliance support and peace of mind. Click here, for more information.
What is included in our SMSF rules update?
We supply:
- a deed of variation with the rules;
- draft trustee and any other relevant party resolutions;
- comprehensive PDS*, SMSF memo and materials for each member (incorporating pro-forma forms including member contribution notices, BDBNs, applications for membership and notifications to contributing employers); and
- detailed instructions, including a completion checklist.
*Our SMSF rules come with a personalised PDS for each Member at no extra cost. The PDS assists advisers in informing their clients about the features of an SMSF and is an invaluable educational tool and therefore minimises the risk of adviser liability. We are aware of numerous other suppliers that rely on an exemption in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) to avoid supplying a PDS or do not provide a separate PDS to the deed. However, this exemption is difficult to satisfy and raises significant compliance risks.
FAQs
My adviser has said ‘update the deed,’ is this the same as updating the ‘rules’?
Probably. ‘Updating the deed’ is a common way to refer to updating the rules of an SMSF. Though this phrase could include changing a particular provision or appointing a new trustee, it usually means adopting more modern rules.
Do the current DBA Lawyers’ SMSF rules allow the trustee to borrow?
Yes. Our SMSF rules allow the trustee to borrow under a limited recourse borrowing arrangement in accordance with section 67A of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (Cth). Many rules, issued prior to mid-2010, have insufficient powers and would not be accepted by lenders who typically review all SMSF deeds, including those adopting the SMSF’s rules, before lending. As such all SMSF trustees proposing to borrow should have their rules thoroughly reviewed and upgraded in preparation for their application.
We offer the SMSF Deed History Review service where we review all documents in the SMSF’s ‘deed history trail’ including any documents relating to change of trustee and the adoption of new rules. This is separate from our basic SMSF rules update service (click here for further information regarding this detailed review service).
How does succession to the trustee role operate under the current DBA Lawyers’ SMSF rules?
DBA Lawyers’ SMSF rules have been prepared with a view to smooth SMSF succession planning by providing flexibility for how a member’s interests in the SMSF can be managed by their executor/attorney following their death or incapacity. Typically, the SMSF members maintain control and can hire and fire a trustee (having regard to their overall fund balance as a proportion of the total fund balance). DBA Lawyers’ SMSF rules provide protection for members if they become incapacitated or die by allowing their legal personal representative to ‘stand in their shoes’. DBA Lawyers’ SMSF rules also provide the SMSF members the option of successor trustee appointments and the choice of either individuals or a company trustee.
If coupled with DBA Lawyers’ constitution, the DBA rules also allow for:
- a person’s executor to easily become a director in place of a deceased member under our constitution;
- a person’s attorney acting under an Enduring Power of Attorney to easily become a director in place of a member when he or she loses legal capacity; and
- a member to nominate a ‘successor director’ during their lifetime to step into their role as director upon their incapacity or death, which helps to minimise the uncertainty of who will take control of their fund after they lose capacity or die.
Note, the nomination of a ‘successor director’ is provided for in our company constitution (DBA Lawyers’ company constitution comes with a successor director nomination form); not the SMSF rules. For more information as to the current DBA Lawyers constitution, click here. To order a constitution, click here. To have DBA Lawyers register a company for you, click here.
What type of pensions are allowed under the current DBA Lawyers’ SMSF rules?
Our SMSF rules allow account-based pensions and transition to retirement income streams (TRIS), and any other eligible pension to be provided. Our SMSF deed preserves any prior pensions such as lifetime pensions, fixed term pensions, flexi-pensions, capped defined benefit income streams and various other ‘legacy’ style pensions that have been allowed under prior rules.
Are BDBNs allowed under the current DBA Lawyers’ SMSF rules?
Yes. DBA Lawyers’ SMSF rules allow for both binding and non-binding death benefit nominations to be made (along with the making of reversionary pension nominations). This is a key strength of our SMSF rules as many other SMSF rules do not facilitate the making of a valid and effective BDBN. For support on this point, click here. Our SMSF rules come with a useful BDBN template with relevant information for members to review. DBA rules post-June 1999 enable members to make BDBNs. For more information on BDBNs click here.
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This article is for general information only and should not be relied upon without first seeking advice from an appropriately qualified professional. The above does not constitute financial product advice. Financial product advice can only be obtained from a licenced financial adviser under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).
Note: DBA Lawyers presents monthly online SMSF training. For more details or to register, visit www.dbanetwork.com.au or call 03 9092 9400.
For more information regarding how DBA Lawyers can assist in your SMSF practice, visit www.dbalawyers.com.au.
By Daniel Butler, Director ([email protected]) and Cassandra Hurley, Lawyer ([email protected]), DBA Lawyers
DBA LAWYERS
21 August 2026
