Questions have been raised in regards to whether SMSF trustees will have financial documents organised and up to date in order to roll out a member as the SuperStream rules take effect from 1 October.
DBA Lawyers senior associate Shaun Backhaus said due to the minimum time frame SMSFs are provided to action rollover requests, he suspects many funds are unprepared.
“We have these divisions now which require rollover requests really quickly. Trustees are required to action rollover requests as soon as practicable and generally not later than three business days. That is super fast and I would expect many SMSFs are typically not meeting that,” Backhaus said during a webinar last Friday.
He said if trustees are unable to meet these requirements, contraventions could occur, and while they may not be serious, out-of-date information could disadvantage fund members.
“The danger is members are provided with an old rollover benefit statement when they complete those things electronically via SuperStream,” he said.
“If people aren’t meeting the requirements for updated financials, there could be contraventions occurring due to not meeting those requirements.
“It’s generally not going to be an issue except when you’ve got those contentious situations between spouses or children, family, and where people are making those requests and then requiring them to be paid quickly.”
He said SMSF trustee will need to reconsider how they update financial documents under the shorter turnaround period under SuperStream.
“If you get a rollover request for someone’s whole benefits, how will you be able to tell the financials are up to date and how will you know what their particular benefit is?” he said.
“There is a different process when a trustee has received a notice but feels they need more information. Now there will be time limits about going back and asking for that information and then acting on it. It is really detailed, but still needs to be done quickly.”
