Detailed below are some areas in which confusion can arise when it comes to who can be a member and individual trustee/director of a corporate trustee of an SMSF:

There is no requirement for all members of the fund to be related, nor need there be any relationship between them. The ”relative” part of the SMSF definition only comes into play if one member is an employee of another.

An adviser/accountant can act as one of the individual trustees/directors of a corporate trustee of a client’s SMSF, provided there is no “employee” relationship between them.

However, the accountant would not be able to audit the SMSF, as this arrangement would not satisfy the auditor independence rules [SIS s.128F(d), SIS Reg 9A.06].

The adviser/accountant could also not be paid any remuneration for performing their “trustee” duties regardless of whether the payments were made directly to the individual or via the advisory/accounting firm. The firm could continue to be paid to undertake advisory/accounting work or carry out administrative tasks. The adviser/accountant could only receive payment for these non-trustee services personally if they (personally rather than through a company or another entity) carried on a business providing these services and met the other conditions outlined earlier. 

In the absence of a corporate trustee, single member funds must have two individual trustees. This does not mean that both individual trustees must become members.