SMSF administration and documentation provider Class has added features to the trust deed provided via its NowInfinity business arm aimed at improving the estate planning component of this service.
According to DGF Morgan director and solicitor David Morgan, NowInfinity’s legal services partner, the enhancement covers off what he considers to be the most important estate planning feature of an SMSF trust deed, which is the hierarchy of death benefit payments.
“The NowInfinity deed very clearly itemises the priorities, starting with reversionary pensions, which we see as being consistent with the strategic objectives of many advisers and trustees in this space,” Morgan revealed.
“Another key provision is providing attorneys, under certain circumstances, to make or amend binding death benefit nominations and reversionary pension nominations, which we believe can lead to a member’s estate planning intentions being better met should they become incapacitated.
“With more and more instances of lost fund documents, trustees who hold a copy of the lost original document have the specific power to sign a deed of confirmation which may permit the trustees to rely on the copy and regard it as if it were the original signed document.”
NowInfinity general manager Tracy Williams confirmed the amendments to the trust deeds will now allow them to provide greater flexibility and clarity for SMSF practitioners, particularly with regard to death benefits, and were made in conjunction with clients and industry experts.
“We’re committed to supporting accountants, lawyers and other financial professionals by providing the best quality documents and technology solutions that enable them to efficiently and effectively establish and maintain entities on behalf of their clients,” Williams said.
“We’ve listened to their feedback and these new features are in addition to several document and compliance product enhancements that we’ve delivered this year to meet the emerging needs of our fast-growing client base.”
Further, NowInfinity confirmed this development will provide the foundation for its new deed and compliance offering to be launched in the coming year.
“We are very excited to soon be launching our reimagined SMSF compliance solution, Super Comply, which will include solutions to assist clients to update their deeds and access a central compliance module that will enable them to easily keep their SMSF deeds and investment strategies up to date and compliant,” Williams noted.
