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Peter Morris

Mar 09, 2021

Parties other than the correct trustee holding assets

in SMSF Technical Forum

It is a criteria that ALL the super fund investments are in the name of the trustee.

What if there was a supporting declaration of trust for other parties (not the trustee) to hold the super fund assets.

This totally goes against the principles of the trustee ownership.

Eg all the members could have trust declarations for them to hold some of the assets!!! In a SMSF you could be faced with 4 members & 1 trustee holding assets.

My query is - if ANY party other than the nominated trustee is holding super fund assets – as auditor I am obliged to lodge an Auditors contravention notice – even if that party can show me a duly signed declaration of trust in favour of the trustee for the super fund? DO you Agree?

I heard it mentioned in a recent SMSFAAA webinar that some crypto currency’s may only allow individuals – and it there is a corporate trustee to the super fund -I believe a auditor contravention report should be issued – do you agree?

4 comments

Comments (4)

Ron Cohen

Aug 25, 2021

I have a similar case. As an extension to the discussion above, if an unrelated third party was holding assets on behalf of the superannuation fund, would that not be a custodian arrangement? If so, is a custodian subject to other regulatory requirements that would then satisfy Reg 4.09A?