A technical specialist has reminded SMSF trustees and their advisers in specie rollovers are not captured by the new SuperStream protocols to apply from 1 October.
“The good news [with in specie rollovers] is they’re excepted from the SuperStream system so we wouldn’t do it within SuperStream, we’d do it outside. So you’d do it the current way – you’d execute the relevant transfer documents to effect the transfer of the relevant assets,” Accurium head of education Mark Ellem said.
However, Ellem warned trustees and their advisers to be cognisant that most superannuation rollovers consist of several elements.
“What you’ll normally find in practice is that a rollover of member’s benefits, while it might incorporate a transfer of assets in specie, will also have a cash component,” he said.
“So my understanding at the moment is that [it will be treated like] you’re effectively doing two rollovers – you’re going to do a rollover outside of SuperStream for the in specie part, the assets transfer, and you’re going to do the cash component of the rollover via SuperStream.
“So you might have to end up doing two [rollovers].”
During the same presentation, a poll revealed the majority, 56 per cent, of practitioners are relying on their chosen administration platform to ensure they are SuperStream compliant.
A further 34 per cent indicated they were yet to review the progress of their platform provider as to being SuperStream ready, while 10 per cent said they thought it was entirely the responsibility of the SMSF trustees to ensure a fund is SuperStream compliant.
To this end, Ellem assured planners and practitioners their clients’ SMSFs did not necessarily have to be SuperStream ready by 1 October when the protocol will apply to the sector.
“It’s really not going to be an issue unless a member wants to roll in or out of the fund. So [it won’t mean] come 1 October if you don’t have SuperStream for rollovers, that’s it you can’t do anything. It’s only an issue when you are rolling in or out of the fund,” he noted.
“For a lot of funds that’s not going to happen on 1 October.”
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