Like most professional advisers, we are strongly of the view
that a self-managed
superannuation fund ("SMSF") should have a corporate
trustee. This article looks at the trustee requirements for SMSFs
and sets out a number of reasons for preferring a corporate
trustee.
An SMSF may either have a sole corporate trustee or individual
trustees. If the SMSF has a corporate trustee, then each member
must be a director of the company and the company may not have any
other directors. Similarly, with individual trustees the members
must generally be the only trustees.
The decision as to whether an SMSF has a corporate trustee or
individual trustees, needs to be made at the time that the fund is
set up. While it is possible to change the trustee structure later,
it is not a simple or a cost-free exercise to do so.
