Our expertise in SMSF strategies has been developed from more than 30 years in taxation, audit, accounting, corporate tax, consulting, financial advising, and investment management.
Straight out of University, Peter’s first role in Chartered Accounting was managing more than 500 self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF).
From preparing hand written payments and receipts records, to bank reconciliations, preparation of financial accounts, audit, and taxation returns, Peter gained an early insight of the working of SMSFs.
Peter was responsible for managing the investments for the SMSFs and back then his ideal allocation was 50 per cent into shares in Australian companies such as BHP, Western Mining, and 50 per cent into Aussie Bonds, which were paying 16-18 per cent interest at that time.
Peter carried these disciplines into the current practice, and understands while they are not suitable for every client, there are many strategic advantages with having your own superannuation structure to hold your investments and then provide an income stream by utilising our Draw Down Approach throughout retirement.
While Peter has one of the longest running experiences with SMSFs, he does just use them for everyone. We have seen SMSF specialists who put everyone who walks through their door into a SMSF, regardless of their circumstances.
We are very precise with our judgement of who should use a SMDSF, and what circumstances they should be used. As an example, in the Retirement Roadmap illustration [link] a SMSF was used for Michael and Julie, whereas for Martin and Tova in the Financial Game Plan illustration [link] a SMSF was not used as we were able to achieve the same investment risk/reward in a superannuation structure provided by a platform.
Superannuation is an ideal structure in which to build wealth and draw an income stream throughout retirement.
As can be seen from Michael and Julie’s Retirement Roadmap and Martin and Tova’s Financial Game Plan, the use of a superannuation structure is a crucial way of ensuring that a person or people achieve their desired financial outcomes.
While a superannuation member is in ‘accumulation phase’ there is 15% earnings tax and 10% capital gains tax on assets held for more than 12 months (15% if held less than 12 months).
Deposits into superannuation can be made as concessional contributions by an employer or non-concessional contributions by an individual member.
Concessional contributions are tax deductible to an employer but incur contributions tax of 15% once deposited into a superannuation fund. The maximum concessional contribution is $27,500 per financial year. Thus, making the maximum concessional contributions each year adds $23,375 after tax to a superannuation member’s balance.
Non-concessional contributions are in effect made from after-tax savings and are limited to $110,000 each financial year. There is no contributions tax on non-concessional contributions, and they are classified as tax-free component in a superannuation fund account. This means that there is no tax to an estate when the time comes to distribute any residual superannuation balance to beneficiaries.
