esuper

Hi all, first post here so not sure if it's in the right place.

I am looking at setting up a self managed super fund. Just wandering if anyone has any experience with esuper ? Current deal is first year free and then $599 per year after.

I've not had experience with them, but it sounds worth looking into. I, too, would be interested to hear others feedback.

argentinian

We have had an SMSF for about 2 years now - the costs are based on FUM (funds under management) and many superannuation administration companies have a maximum charge.

I have not heard of esuper, but $599 pa sounds very cheap for admin costs for an SMSF. For this amount I would expect that audit and accounting fees would certainly be extras - what other fees do they charge on top of this amount???

Check the fine print very, very carefully - you only get what you pay for!

Cheers
LynnH

Check it out ...

http://www.esuperfund.com.au/default.php?doc_id=226&Annual+Fee

Only other additional fee is the ATO $150 p.a one. That's it ! I have just signed up !

Few questions

1. Are you allowed to use an online broker other than Commsec ?
2. Can you use the super fund to trade in options and CFD's ?
3. Do they allow investment in direct property or via instalment warrants and what is the commission for investing directly in property ?
4. Can you setup accounts with a bank other than ANZ or Macquarie ?

Not sure of the answers to these. Seems as though the fees come primarily from commissions from brokerage fees on trading on the account. No problems with that but does it mean they have to execute the trades for you ?

I've just read further and answered some of the quesitons myself.

1. No
2. Yes Options. CFD's unclear.
3. No. Major disadvantage as I believe using your super fund for property is an opportunity.
4. No.

One can always change down the track if you something better is available

One disadvantage I see is that you don't know what your actual position is until the end of the FY - unless you keep a complete set of records yourself of all purchases, sales, dividends, distributions etc etc.

With my current SMSF I can log on at any hour of the day or night and get an up-to-date picture - that way, I can make any necessary decisions to buy/sell or whatever ..... and believe me, in the current financial maelstrom, the ability to make such decisions has saved me heaps of $$$.

I would also be very interested in finding out who - i.e. actual people - is behind this company. All I could find on their website was company names. Do you have any knowledge of who has established e.superfund, argentinian? I would appreciate it if you could post/PM me if you do know.

Thanks.

Cheers
LynnH

Suncorp owns esuperfund.

How do you know that you are not able to find your position. There is a login that allows you to do that from what I see.

That's interesting, argentinian.

Have checked out their website and done ASIC checks etc, and could find no mention anywhere of a connection with Suncorp. e.super is registered in Victoria, as are the 2 companies with which they appear to be connected, Morrison Carr Australia Pty Ltd and Falconer Bellomo and Company Limited. In fact, all three companies mentioned have their registered offices in the same building in Southbank, Melbourne. If you could provide more info about the connection with Suncorp, I would be grateful.

The only login I could find on their website was for the Macquarie CMT (i.e. bank a/c) - elsewhere it stated that you had to advise them by the end of the FY of transactions you undertook which were outside their reporting system (e.g. in specie contributions etc), thus a daily update of all transactions within your SMSF would appear not to be possible with e.super.

Horses for courses, I guess - depends on what each individual prefers: I prefer to be very much hands-on, others would probably only read their statements once a year and there'd be a whole bunch in between the two extremes.

Cheers
LynnH

Further to my last post, I've been doing a bit of "googling", and have come up with the following:

Suncorp's superannuation product is Easy Super - eSuper - and is managed by Suncorp itself. There is no SMSF element that I could find anywhere on the website.

The e.super which is the subject of this thread is e.superfund - and appears to be a stand-alone SMSF product. The companies connected to e.super are mentioned in my previous post.

So far, I have been unable to find any connection whatsoever between Suncorp and e.super. Can anyone provide any further information about a connection between (what seems to be) these two separate companies?

argentinian?? Anyone else??

Cheers
LynnH

argentinian said:

Check it out ...
http://www.esuperfund.com.au/default.php?doc_id=226&Annual+Fee
........... That's it ! I have just signed up !

Click to expand...

So 1 month on, what do you think of their service? Any surprises that they forgot to mention on their site?

I have done research on this as I will need to move our SMSF administration to another provider next financial year.

Based on research and references from others I wil be using SuperEasy who administer over 2000 SMSFs:

http://www.supereasy.com.au/welcome.asp?pg=so&gclid=COeTx-K59pUCFSAUagodhhxU4A

"SETUP: With the purchase of the set up of the Self Managed Superannuation Fund, SuperEasy® provides all the documentation necessary for the establishment of the complying fund, according to the legislative requirements. Cost $345."

http://www.supereasy.com.au/welcome.asp?pg=so&gclid=COeTx-K59pUCFSAUagodhhxU4A

"ADMINISTRATION: SuperEasy® offers a Fixed Fee of $1,195 for the Self Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF) Annual Administration. The fee is based on 15 different Australian investments with no limit on number of transactions in the SMSF and irrespective of the size of the fund. The same price applies irrelevant of the number of members in the fund, with a corporate or non-corporate trustee. Each additional "Australian Investment" is charged $44.00, GST inclusive, regardless of the number of transactions per that investment. The service includes preparation of the accounts, audit, tax return and lodgement with the ATO."

http://www.supereasy.com.au/welcome.asp?pg=so&gclid=COeTx-K59pUCFSAUagodhhxU4A

They are not the cheapest but certainly MUCH cheaper than some of the more publicised and/or institutional backed providers. I also spoke with the owner and found her excellent to deal with.

The cheapest providers tend to require you to use a particular online broker, bank accounts etc. Hence they are somewhat using a commissioned based price model. Supereasy does not have any such limitations/restrictions.

I would never use a provider who charges for the "amount" of funds held by the SMSF. There is often a minimal charge (but maybe not minimal in amount) and if you exceed a certain number of investments there may also be additional fees. This is a rip-off in my view. We have substantial funds invested in our SMSF but there are minimal assets because of the use of LICs and ETFs. So for us charging for the number of investments is much fairer.

There is a review of various providers in the latest Smart Investor magazine.

Cheers - Gordon
PS: I receive no benefit for offering the above information - it is merely the result of research on my part for our own circumstances.

LynnH said:

One disadvantage I see is that you don't know what your actual position is until the end of the FY - unless you keep a complete set of records yourself of all purchases, sales, dividends, distributions etc etc.

Click to expand...

Lynn
As this form of super only has two 'accounts' it looks easy to me to find out status at any time. Your super's cash is in the ANZ account and your shares are all in a Comsec account. You can logon anytime to get status?
Is this what you mean?

I would have started one of these SMSF's if they allowed property purchasing.

LynnH said:

One disadvantage I see is that you don't know what your actual position is until the end of the FY - unless you keep a complete set of records yourself of all purchases, sales, dividends, distributions etc etc.

With my current SMSF I can log on at any hour of the day or night and get an up-to-date picture - that way, I can make any necessary decisions to buy/sell or whatever ..... and believe me, in the current financial maelstrom, the ability to make such decisions has saved me heaps of $$$.

Click to expand...

I am with you there Lynn, I know my super balance at every minute! Hasnt been a pleasant look this year either! One of the biggest winners in our SMSF was a block of land which we sold for our 120% profit in 4 years. If you cant own property in Esuper then give it a miss.

LynnH said:

With my current SMSF I can log on at any hour of the day or night and get an up-to-date picture - that way, I can make any necessary decisions to buy/sell or whatever ..... and believe me, in the current financial maelstrom, the ability to make such decisions has saved me heaps of $$$.

Cheers
LynnH

Click to expand...

LynnH
Who are you with?

ILoveProperty said:

Lynn
As this form of super only has two 'accounts' it looks easy to me to find out status at any time. Your super's cash is in the ANZ account and your shares are all in a Comsec account. You can logon anytime to get status?
Is this what you mean?

Click to expand...

ILP

When investigating the nitty-gritty of SMSFs prior to setting up our fund, I found there was a world of difference between the amount and format of the information provided by the various superannuation administration companies/institutions/etc. I'm not familiar with Commsec or ANZ websites, but from what I know of similar websites, the information seems to be quite limited compared with the information provided with my SMSF. But a big disadvantage with esuper, as I saw it (my previous post #9) was the mention on their website that the member had to provide esusper with information by the end of the F/Y on transactions the member undertook outside esuper's reporting system, and thus the inability of their reporting system to have up-to-date info on a daily basis. I probably should have linked the two posts together for the sake of clarity, but that's what I meant when I said that you didn't know your actual position until the end of the F/Y. Hope that makes sense.

Pushka said:

... I know my super balance at every minute! Hasnt been a pleasant look this year either!

Click to expand...

Agreed, Pushka - it's been one helluva scary roller-coaster ride at times, but I take consolation from the fact that if we'd left it in hubby's company fund we would be much worse off!

Cheers
Lynn

P.S. This post is a copy of a previous post (#11) - the gremlins got into the system, so I've moved it and re-typed it for the sake of thread continuity.

Ziggy

Will send you a PM.

Cheers
LynnH

P.S. This is a retype of a previous post (#12) - gremlins active in the system, so have moved it for thread continuity.

I think some comments about esuper don't reflect what esuper is trying to be. They are service that does everything you require incl audits for a very cheap price. But THEY ARE NOT offering an online portal to follow your investments - you should do this yourself by using Quicken or other cheap software. If you have a low balance, then you really can't go past the low costs, but you have to do a bit more work yourself.

If you want this feature also try -

http://www.yoursuperadmin.com.au/index.html

Both of these are really aimed at the self directed investor.

LynnH said:

Further to my last post, I've been doing a bit of "googling", and have come up with the following:

Suncorp's superannuation product is Easy Super - eSuper - and is managed by Suncorp itself. There is no SMSF element that I could find anywhere on the website.

The e.super which is the subject of this thread is e.superfund - and appears to be a stand-alone SMSF product. The companies connected to e.super are mentioned in my previous post.

So far, I have been unable to find any connection whatsoever between Suncorp and e.super. Can anyone provide any further information about a connection between (what seems to be) these two separate companies?

argentinian?? Anyone else??

Cheers
LynnH

Click to expand...

Hi, Lynn

Can you please advise how the SMSF works? where do you park your money? where do you set up your account?

As claimed in XXXX websites, they managed 2000 such SMSF. If the person of this website, took the money and run away, what can happen?

TA

Not quite sure exactly what info you are after, but .....

An SMSF is an alternative to industry super funds, company super funds, etc for those who would like to exercise more control over their superannuation. There are a number of ways you can go about setting up an SMSF, but generally they fall into 3 broad categories:

1. Totally DIY where you have someone set up the Trust Deed (an accountant or solicitor) and you handle all the investment decisions, record keeping etc yourself.

2. A superannuation administration company, which will set up the Trust Deed, handle the record keeping/administration and sometimes other things like accounting, auditing etc - but you make the investment decisions.

3. A full service such as provided by the institutions, where everything (or almost everything) is handled on your behalf.

Where you park your money depends on what option you choose - some administration organizations have arrangements with financial institutions, brokerage firms etc and you are required to use the bank and broking firm nominated by the administration company. With other options, you have more choice.

As far as "the person of this website .. (taking) the money and run(ning) away" goes, SMSF managers do not have open access to the bank a/c of the SMSF. They have access to the financial information of the fund for the purposes of providing their administration services. The SMSF manager has to be authorised by those who control the SMSF bank a/c i.e. the Trustees of the SMSF (generally you and spouse or, if single, you and corporate trustee) to deduct amounts from the SMSF bank a/c - and these are generally limited to an authority to deduct any fees owed to the manager/administrator. Excessive fees, commissions and poor financial advice can erode the value of your superannuation very quickly. It is crucial to do adequate DD!

There is an article in the March edition of Smart Investor magazine which provides a good overview of administration/compliance services.

Hope this answers your questions .....

Cheers
LynnH