Which Pension Income Choice is Best?

Our last week’s summary of the changes to super legislation avoided discussing the pension choices that apply in this financial year. We will consider them now. SMSF trustees can now choose from 2 alternative methods of calculating how much pension fund income...

SMSF Legacy Reserves Strategies

SMSF residual reserves are a challenge to trustees wishing to distribute them. It is expected that, when the regulations allow the rollover/cessation of legacy SMSF defined benefit pensions, the number of funds with this issue will increase. One solution is to make a...

Australian Death Notification Initiative

A new government death notification initiative facilitates contact with multiple organisations using a single online notification. It’s intended to minimise the paperwork involved in estate administration. Once a notification is lodged, it is sent to all participating...

Financial Dependency or Empty Promise?

Children who are financially dependent on a deceased parent will pay no tax on receipt of the taxable component of the parent’s superannuation benefit. There is a view that otherwise independent children can qualify as financial dependents simply by being in receipt...