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Saturday, 23 October 2021
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An SMSF’s governing documents, including the trust deed, should specify trustee structure in the event of the death of a member, to ensure that the deceased’s estate plan is realised.
The merit of appointing an internal or external CEO depends on the company's circumstances. Internal appointments tend to be more successful, although alignment of interests with shareholders is critical.
Only 22% of SMSFs have a corporate trustee, with the rest using individual trustees. The benefits of a corporate trustee are not widely appreciated or adopted, but they will be realised when it's too late.
A compilation of answers to readers’ questions covering powers of attorney, enduring guardianship, succession planning and limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) within an SMSF.
The RBA Governor says rising house prices are due to "the design of our taxation and social security systems". The OECD says "the prolonged boom in house prices has inflated the wealth of many pensioners without impacting their pension eligibility." What's your view?
We tend to forget that house prices often fall. Direct lending controls are more effective than rate rises because macroprudential limits affect the volume of money for housing leaving business rates untouched.
The survey drew a fantastic 2,000 responses with over 1,000 comments and polar opposite views on what is good policy. Do most people believe the home should be in the age pension asset test, and what do they say?
Any policy decision needs to recognise who is affected by a change. It pays to check the data on who pays taxes, who owns assets and who earns the income to ensure an equitable and efficient outcome.
With articles on the pensions assets test read about 40,000 times, 3,500 survey responses and thousands of comments, there was a lot of great reader participation. A few comments added extra insights.
It is hard to think of any area of widespread public concern where the same policies have been pursued for so long, in the face of such incontrovertible evidence that they have failed to achieve their objectives.