Setting up our DIY superannuation fund

When you setup up a self managed super fund you have the ability to invest the money how you see fit (within certain guidelines). However you must employ the services of a company to help set up your fund and to audit the fund every year. Below explains the process we went through. First some general information about super funds and then why we selected the company we did.

GENERAL INFORMATION
Firstily we looked at the fido website
http://fido.asic.gov.au/fido/fido.nsf/byheadline/Switching+to+DIY+super?openDocument


Key points
Setup costs around $1000
Yearly auditing costs around $1000-2000

They recommend you do not do it unless you have at least 200,000 in your super

LOOKING AT 2 COMPANIES TO SETUP AND AUDIT OUR FUND
I found a couple of companies that will do the work for a great deal less than the costs on the FIDO site. This is very import for the success of our fund as the costs could have a huge effect on the compounding return of our fund.

Company 1
I rang up this company and this was the result of the conversation

http://www.supereasy.com.au/welcome.asp?pg=admin

· $345 establishment fee
· $1095 per annum yearly fee
· same costs for 1 person or 4 in the fund

Company 2
This was a very good deal

http://www.esuperfund.com.au

$0 establishement fee
$599 p year Auditing fees
There are no costs in leaving or joining the fund - just a rollover form

CONCLUSION
This seems really good! The reason they are so well priced is that all transactions must be conducted through on online trading account with commsec. This means that there job of auditing is much easier and quicker for them. This does mean there are some limitations with what you can invest in at the moment no derivatives can be purchased (that doesn’t bother us) and purchases are limited to Australian companies only.

We decided to apply to set up our fund with them. We are now waiting the forms to arrive in the post.

Has anyone else used E-superfund or anyone have any advice for us along the lines of our choice of DIY auditors?

 I would love to hear anyone thoughts