![\"\"](\"https:\/\/acctweb.com.au\/images\/SMSF_death.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA retirement savings specialist has confirmed the payment of an SMSF death benefit is not dependent upon any of the procedures associated with the deceased member\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n
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In particular, Accurium technical superannuation adviser Jason Hurst noted the trustees of an SMSF where a member has passed away do not need to wait for probate before death benefits from the fund are paid out.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing in super law requires for a death benefit to be dealt with by the fund. [The\u00a0Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act\u00a0<\/em>and Regulations do not] say that we need to wait for probate,\u201d Hurst told attendees of the most recent Accurium technical webinar held last week.<\/p>\n \u201cA [superannuation] death benefit generally isn\u2019t an estate asset, so if the [SMSF] trustees are able to make that payment and they have all of the documentation [allowing them to make that payment] quicker than probate, it is certainly possible.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he pointed out the fund\u2019s trust deed needs to be reviewed before deciding to take this course of action.<\/p>\n \u201cAgain it all comes back to what the deed says. It seems that some retail super fund deeds require probate [before a death benefit can be paid] maybe if the death benefit is over a certain amount. Whether that could apply in an SMSF deed [is a possibility],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He warned a situation where the SMSF member who passed away is the sole member of the fund, other restrictions regarding a death benefit payment may also need consideration.<\/p>\n \u201c[In this situation] we\u2019ve got no one who can make decisions until we\u2019re able to appoint [a replacement trustee]. So then [we need to determine if] the SMSF deed has a particular definition of an LPR (legal personal representative). Does it just say they need to be an executor of [the deceased member\u2019s] will or does it say they need to be the executor of the will and [need to] receive probate to act?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo under super law we don\u2019t need to wait for probate, but there may be some other reasons why we [may need to do so].\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n July 29, 2025 A retirement savings specialist has confirmed the payment of an SMSF death benefit is not dependent upon any of the procedures associated with the deceased member\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions\/2221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDarin Tyson-Chan
\nsmsmagazine.com.au<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"