A leading lawyer has urged advisers of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF) to pay close attention in tailoring the documents to the needs of members and their relationships.
"I'm not a proponent of 'off the shelf' documentation because it seems to me what 'off the shelf' documentation does is make a very wrong assumption," Anthony Mason Chambers QC Paul Slattery told the SMSF Professionals' Association of Australia conference.
"It makes an assumption of standardisation which simply is a folly in my opinion," he said.
Slattery said separate unit holder agreements drafted to operate in conjunction with the trust deed can be extremely useful given a change in any fund member relationships..
"I urge upon you as SMSFs advisers that you give consideration again and again to the relationships that are surrounding you SMSF and give consideration to the need for a unit holders' agreement in that relationship," he said.
Slattery added that advisers should keep an open mind about how they approach the documentation requirements for SMSFs and should not be afraid to amend trust deeds if special terms and conditions needed to be accommodated.
"Don't standardise your thinking about documents. Don't think that standard documents do the work that you want to do. They simply do not," he said.
By adopting a broader approach to SMSF documentation requirements, members could achieve better commercial outcomes in changed circumstances, Slattery said. He added that this could prolong the life of an SMSF rather than have aggrieved parties immediately roll out of funds in adverse circumstances.
