DBA Lawyers is often asked whether a particular SMSF trust deed needs to be updated. As a general guide, we recommend that SMSF trust deeds should be updated every 4–5 years, or sooner in the case of major legislative change. The last major legislative change to superannuation that warranted a blanket update for all SMSF [read more]
We have added a user-friendly tutorial video on our website that will guide you through using our Annual Update Service for the first time, or, if you are already a user and haven’t logged on to the Annual Update Service in a while then it could be handy to catch up and take a minute [read more]
In this article I am keen to answer key questions regarding the very old-fashioned legal tradition of deeds and how they interact with modern practices such as: Can a deed be executed electronically? If a lawyer drafts a 50 page deed and emails it to a client as a PDF file, if only one page [read more]
This article considers some of the issues associated with whether a pension payable to a member can be converted to a ‘lifetime’ pension, such that the pension is automatically reversionary to the member’s spouse on their death, and then any remaining capital reverts, for example, to the deceased member’s children from a previous marriage. Case [read more]
There can be compelling reasons why one might want to share a self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) with others. However sharing an SMSF with a spouse (especially a second or subsequent spouse), children, siblings, in-laws, friends or business associates can involve a risk that at some stage there may be a breakdown in the relationship. [read more]
This article examines some of the key reasons for having a company appointed as an SMSF trustee as compared to having individual trustees. It also examines some issues that can arise when advisers are preparing change of trustee documents. Why do so many SMSFs have individual trustees? SMSFs can have either have a company or [read more]
DBA Lawyers is Australia’s leading SMSF law firm. We have been refining our SMSF deed for well over 20 years, making it the best SMSF deed available. Additionally, our SMSF deed contains numerous ‘value-added’ advantages that set it apart. Accordingly, our SMSF deed offers many benefits that are not found anywhere else. All of the [read more]
Small private companies are widely used to manage and control financial affairs. At times they are used as companies in their own right, but they are also commonly used as trustees for SMSFs, family trusts and unit trusts. Regardless of whether a company acts as trustee or not, the directors hold day-to-day control over the [read more]
A DBA Lawyers company offers many advantages that are not found anywhere else. These benefits are present for all companies, even if the company is not an SMSF trustee. New companies through DBA Lawyers are provided with our constitution at the outset and can enjoy all the benefits discussed here straight away. On the other [read more]
1 July 2015 was the day that saw the removal of all but one Australian superannuation fund from the UK’s Registered Overseas Pension Scheme (‘ROPS’) list due to changes in UK laws on 6 April 2015. Since this time lawyers, large industry funds, professional associations and the Australian Treasury have been trying to assist Her [read more]
