29 October 2020
Superannuation – Beneficiaries as corporate trustees and need for death benefit nominations
A husband and wife have a self-managed superannuation fund where they are the directors of the corporate trustee and the beneficiaries. They want to leave their superannuation proceeds to each other.
Is it prudent to complete death benefit nominations in favour of each other even though the survivor will be in control of the corporate trustee?
Thank you for the question.
It is prudent to complete the nominations to provide certainty as to the clients’ wishes.
See, for example, Burgess v Burgess [2018] WASC 279, where there was conflict between the executor of an estate in paying themselves superannuation death benefits instead of paying the estate. The court found that this conflict could be avoided by completing death benefit nominations.
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