SMSF corporate trustee: costs and when to use one

Corporate trustee vs individual trustees

With individual trustees, every asset the SMSF holds (bank accounts, share registries, property titles) is held in the joint names of every member. When a member is added, removed, or passes away, you have to re-register every single asset — a real cost in time, broker fees, and legal fees, particularly if the fund holds property.

A corporate trustee removes that problem. The Pty Ltd is the legal owner of every asset, and members are simply added or removed as directors of the trustee company. There's also a cleaner separation between fund assets and personal assets, which matters for liability and audit purposes.

A special-purpose super trustee company has a lower annual review fee than a standard Pty Ltd. A separate one-off company fee also applies to the corporate trustee option.

• Special-purpose Pty Ltd — sole purpose is acting as SMSF trustee
• Reduced annual company review fee compared with a standard company
• Cleaner audit and asset segregation, particularly for SMSFs holding property
• Members come and go as company directors — no asset re-registration required
• Special-purpose company documents prepared for you
• Simplest structure for a single-member SMSF (sole director Pty Ltd) — individual trustees would need a second trustee