Women’s super – closing the gap
Wednesday 23 August 2023 at 11:00 am AEST
We know women’s super balances tend to be lower than men’s. There are many reasons – broken working patterns, the gender pay gap, and that women are more likely to work less than full-time hours.
Whether you’re starting out, planning retirement, or have retired, this webinar will help you to take control of your super and put strategies in place to reduce the risk you’re left behind. We’ll cover everything from maximising your contributions to choosing appropriate investments and dealing with separation or divorce.
August 1: It’s time to implement any investment decisions that need to be executed. Have equity market movements resulted in a shifting of your asset allocations? Are you now seriously overweight in financials and need to sell some to rebalance towards another sector such as retail? Arrange a meeting with the other funds trustees to think about reallocating in accordance with your investment strategy, or revising your investment strategy if that is necessary too. Make sure that you minute any major decisions you make for the SMSF in that meeting and maintain these records.
Remember, the ATO requires you to keep the following records for a minimum of five years:
- Accurate and accessible accounting records that explain the transactions and financial position of your SMSF
- An annual operating statement and an annual statement of your SMSF’s financial position
- Documentation showing decisions made about what benefit payment type was paid (pension, lump sum or a combination of both) and the account the payment was paid from
- Copies of all SMSF annual returns lodged
- Copies of transfer balance account reports lodged
- Copies of any other statements you are required to lodge with the ATO or provide to other super funds.
And these records for a minimum of ten years:
- Minutes of trustee meetings and decisions if matters affecting your fund were discussed, for example, you reviewed the fund’s investment strategy
- Records of all changes of trustees
- Trustee declarations recognising the obligations and responsibilities for any trustee, or director of a corporate trustee, appointed after 30 June 2007
- Members’ written consent to be appointed as trustees
- Copies of all reports given to members
- Documented decisions about storage of collectables and personal use assets.
Learn more about SMSF reporting and record-keeping.
August 17: If you established your SMSF last financial year, or if you did not lodge your annual return on time in the previous financial year, you need to lodge your annual return by 31 October. That means you need to start thinking about appointing an SMSF auditor to carry out their required annual audit and provide you with their audit report so it can be lodged with your SMSF annual return on time.
Don’t forget, you need to appoint your SMSF auditor no later than 45 days before you need to lodge your SMSF annual return. You can search for a registered SMSF auditor through ASIC connect here.
You need to provide your auditor with all the relevant information for them to audit your fund. This includes all information concerning your accounts, transactions and investments, so it is important that you engage with your SMSF accountant or admin provider to have the funds financial statements prepared if this process has not yet commenced.
The auditor will need to have the SMSF balance sheet, the SMSF income statement and an SMSF member statement and they may ask for additional information, which you need to supply within 14 days of their request, so the sooner you get onto this the better.
The auditor is also required to report any contraventions they see to the ATO.
Important: All information on SuperGuide is general in nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether any information on SuperGuide is appropriate to you before acting on it. If SuperGuide refers to a financial product you should obtain the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or seek personal financial advice before making any investment decisions.
