Setting up a bank account in the SMSF – Need & Importance

You need to open a bank account in your fund’s name to manage the fund’s operations and accept contributions, rollovers of super and income from investments. This account is used to pay the fund’s expenses and liabilities.

As a trustee, you need to make sure your self-managed super fund (SMSF) has a bank account that is:

• unique to the SMSF
• recorded correctly with us.

If your SMSF does not have a unique bank account, then your member’s retirement benefits may not be protected. If you did not provide your SMSF’s financial institution details when you registered your fund, you must provide this information to us now.

The fund’s bank account must be kept separate from the trustees’ individual bank accounts and any related employers’ bank accounts.

You don’t have to open a separate bank account for each member but you must keep a separate record of their entitlement, which is called a ‘member account’. Each member account shows:

• contributions made by or on behalf of the member
• fund investment earnings allocated to them
• payments of any super benefits (lump sums or income streams).

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section. We will be happy to answer all your queries.