Member Update - full news - January 2019
We hope that you've either taken the opportunity to have a well-deserved break, alternatively you have used this time productively to plan ahead for 2019. For the team at Smarter SMSF, we've been both planning for 2019 and also building some important new features and documents for the platform, including unit trust & discretionary trust documents.
In the background our development team are working on some exciting projects to improve on the document delivery experience (including, new dashboard). We expect these changes to be progressive over the coming months, and will keep you posted through our member news.
In terms of what else is happening at the moment? Here's a peak into our current activities:
New documents page
If you've logged into the platform recently and ordered documents, you will have noticed that we have migrated across to our new documents page. This now provides a far cleaner and simpler navigation experience to see the available documents, search function, pricing and see what documents are available with the various subscriptions-levels. Check out this video where we explain how you can now navigate and find documents on this page - https://smartersmsf.com/updated-documents-list/
New document tool tips
Work has commenced on adding tool tips functionality into our order forms that will provide a greater explanation of questions and help in decisions that need to be made when completing an order. These tool tips can be text or video, and can link to other materials including articles, tax rulings and more.
Below is an extract of a tool tip that has been added into our soon to be released discretionary trust deed:
We expect this project to be ongoing, with tool tips to be added first to the most commonly used documents, then throughout the document suite. We encourage you to let us know any areas within forms where tool tips would be beneficial as you complete orders, simply by taking a screenshot and emailing through to us at support@smartersmsf.com.
Documents Update
As indicated above, the first couple of weeks in 2019 has given us a clear run at getting a few new and important documents ready for launch. Significant progress has been made on these documents and we expect to have them available towards the end of January.
- Pension Deed of Affirmation and Confirmation (PDAC) - insufficient or missing pension documentation occurs all too often and Re: Narumon's case in Queensland last year highlighted the importance of this documentation in the context of dealing with the member's death benefit. We are in the final stages of launching this document, with both a Pension Deed that affirms and confirms that a pension exists and formally state or restate the terms and conditions of the pension based upon the knowledge and understanding of trustee(s) and member using a Replacement Pension Agreement (RPA) - e.g. RPA includes reversionary status, level of reversion, if is it a pararmount document, segregation and more.
- Discretionary Trusts - this new form and document is now also near completion and should be available to access before the end of January. The form allows for up to 4 primary beneficiaries, providing for both individuals and corporate. Once launched, the development team will also finalise work on added a 'one-click' setup into CAS360, saving you time by adding the trust, trustee and beneficiaries information automatically. For further details, you can visit the new document page - https://smartersmsf.com/documents/discretionary-family-trust/
- Unit Trust Deed - the order form is now complete, but has a greater number of combinations for consideration in the document generation process. We are targeting to have this new document also ready around the end of January. In the initial release the unit trust will allow for 5 unit holders (3 of those can be joint holders) - eventually we expect to increase the number of unit holders to 20. The unit holders cater for individuals, companies, holdings on trust (e.g. family trust or SMSF), and joint holders (e.g. John & Jane Citizen holding jointly, not as separate unit holders). Again, post launch our development team will be working on the one-click integration with CAS360 to seamlessly add the trust, trustee and unitholder information into BGL. For further details, you can visit the new document page, https://smartersmsf.com/documents/unit-trust/
In addition to the above, we also have an ongoing list of feature improvements to documents and within the order forms. These include:
- Limited Recourse Borrowing Arrangements - simplifying the order form to separate the Bare Trust from the related party loan facility agreement
- Adding a level of reversion to pensions - by %, dollar amount or to a member's transfer balance cap.
- Create Comply - work continues on the existing suite of unlicensed accountants letters now available, bringing the current document templates into order forms and workflows for use.
If you have any other suggestions for future documents, please email us at
support@smartersmsf.com or request through a ticket online.
Training & Events
Save the date
We have now finalised arrangements for our SMSF day events and encourage you to save the date. Further details about these days will be released shortly including our member price.
- Melbourne - 29 March 2019 - Marvel Stadium, Docklands
- Adelaide - 2 April 2019 - The Playford Hotel, Adelaide
- Brisbane - 4 April 2019 - Hilton Brisbane
- Sydney - 5 April 2019 - Parkroyal Darling Harbour
- Perth - 8 April 2019 - Fraser Suites, East Perth
Webinars recently added for Learn members to access:
- Changing Face of SMSF (December)
- Launch of Create Comply product
- Understanding the role of a Fund Member's Guardian
Our webinars page is the next area that we will be looking to update to improve search functionality and course materials. We will provide a further update in next month's member news.
As always, if you have any questions about any of the above updates or in general, please reach out to us either online, by email (team@smartersmsf.com) or by phone, 1300 95 94 76.
Regards,
Aaron Dunn, CEO & Co-founder