Why You Should Never Set Up An SMSF Without A Corporate Trustee

We will never, ever, ever, ever, ever set up a self-managed super fund without a corporate trustee.

There are administration benefits to it and the estate planning benefits are insane when you compare it to individual trustees. Individual trustees are relatively nightmares compared to corporate trustees.

A question i’ve been asked is “Why are 80% of new SMSFs using individual trustees rather than corporate?” My guess would be: simplicity at the setup, and also price. It will be cheaper by roughly $1,500 maybe, maybe a bit less than that, to set up individual trustees rather than corporate – but I will never do it.

If a client said, “Hey, I want an SMSF, and I insist on an individual trustee in my setup” I will say, “No, I won’t do it. Go somewhere else to set it up.” Even the admin is not great. We have helped clients unwind that and transfer from individual to corporate trustees. But again, even there’s some on the call today who have done that before, and even the paperwork for it, and the time it takes to do that is crazy.

If you are an individual trustee, any new members, or any existing members, or members who die, you need to do all that paperwork every single time. It is not fun.

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