One of the many benefits of a superannuation fund is that you get to have full control over it and the entire process of opening and managing it. You get to choose your fellow trustees, the people and agencies who will do the specific tasks such as accounting, auditing, and handling legal issues. You pretty much have both hands free in the process of dealing with your retirement era. That being said, you also have the chance to choose how will you set up the fund: on your own, or by hiring a specialized agent.
Since setting up a fund on your own is a very demanding task asking for a lot of specific knowledge, the best and consequently, most popular way for SMSF set up is hiring an expert to take care of it all. If you’ve been thinking about setting up an SMSF, then you probably are aware of all the complex moves you need to be able to make during the entire process. Hiring an expert in the area will ease all that a lot, protecting you from the traps and the consequences of skipping or not doing correctly any of the financial and legal steps on the way.
For starters, your fund needs to be properly set up. The members should be properly chosen, a meeting should be held and all the personal data needs to be gathered. Then comes the paperwork which needs to be properly completed. At this point there are also other documents that need to be taken care of and will allow you to do certain actions during the functioning of the fund. You would probably neglect some of these steps resonating that you can always do them later, but in the world of finance and especially audit, there’s no space for mistakes in timetables; everything has to be done in its designated time. An expert agent knows this fact.
Then there’s the procedure of borrowing against your fund and accountancy; these moves include so many details and specifics that you simply can’t and shouldn’t know. For that purpose do the specialists exist. And make no mistake – every wrong move in this area will cost you a lot.
This brings me to the next reason why you should consider hiring an expert: the legal issues. The SMSF funds have a special regulation and are under supervision of the ATO. Being familirized and aware of all the legal requirements for a SMSF set up is a must, and if you’re not a schooled lawyer, this will come as a problem for you.
Bottom line is, there are not a lot of people who enter the SMSF business on their own. Most do the smart thing and hire the expertise. Good luck!