STRATEGY
Would you like children with your SMSF?
The ability now for an SMSF to have six members in it has reignited the notion of including children in, what would be considered, a family fund. Graeme Colley puts forward the arguments both for and against this course of action.
GRAEME COLLEY is SMSF technical and private wealth executive manager at SuperConcepts.
Now SMSFs can have six members in them, it begs the question: Is it worthwhile to set up a family fund and have mum, dad and the children as members or expand mum and dad’s SMSF to include the kids? Ultimately the decision to be made is whether the kids should join the existing fund, set up their own SMSF or go elsewhere to an industry or retail fund. On the positive side, SMSFs provide an excellent way of building retirement savings and when done properly can boost the financial literacy of all members regardless of age. So why not have one exclusively for the whole family?
Would you recommend a family SMSF? Recommending a family SMSF really depends
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on the circumstances of those involved and how committed they will be to their personal superannuation fund. There are those who wouldn’t recommend children as members or trustees of a family SMSF, but others have experienced the benefits and acknowledge children played an important part in the operation of the fund. It can engender a high level of respect among family members and especially if decisions can be made collaboratively to the overall benefit of fund members. On the downside, however, there is an everincreasing number of court cases that are littered with sad stories. Most involve the lack of adequate documentation, which leads to disputes over
