The cost of closing your SMSF

We are in our mid seventies and are thinking of closing our SMSF and having a managed fund in lieu. What is the cost of closing our SMSF (assuming we need to)?

Any advice on choosing a managed fund? Cubs has been suggested.
What is the range of fees that would be charged?

We have about $1.5m in shares, hybrids, LICs and cash, and hoping for an income of about 85k with minimal draw-down of our capital.

A: Closing a SMSF isn’t hard (or necessarily expensive), however you will have to.

  • Sell all the assets (unless you can do an ‘in-specie’ transfer;
  • Rollover the funds to another super fund (potentially, you could also withdraw the funds); and
  • Lodge a final tax return with the ATO, which will also include an audit. The ATO has some guidelines on closing a SMSF – see https://www.ato.gov.au/super/self-managed-super-funds/winding-up/

 

If you are looking for another fund, one of the major industry funds (such as CBUS, Aust Super or REST) is a reasonable choice. Others to throw in the mix include Q Super and Catholic Super. Make sure you select the most appropriate investment option – arguably, this is much more important than the actual fund.

 

Fees are typically a small weekly or fortnightly fee of around $1.50 per week, plus (in pension phase) around 0.8% to 0.9% pa of your total super balance.


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