Speaking in Sydney at an event hosted by Townsends Business & Corporate Lawyers, Ascentor senior consultant Tony Negline said that currently, SMSF trustees can make an arrangement with the bank whereby a transaction is only processed once it has been authorised by two trustees – but no more than two are needed.
“Unfortunately, [the banks] don’t allow authorisation by more than one other trustee,” he said.
Mr Negline stressed the importance of using an authorisation system like this to prevent occurrences such as the case of Triway Superannuation Fund.
“What happened was the son, who was a partaker in illegal drugs of various sorts, convinced his parents to set up a SMSF,” Mr Negline explained.
“There were three members, [but] you only needed one trustee signature to be accepted at the bank, and he had some debt problems created by his gambling and his drug habit and all the money was extracted out of the fund illegally.”
Mr Negline said the fund became non-compliant and there were various fines and penalties.
“To solve this [in my family’s SMSF] each of us has to authorise a transaction and each of us has to be a signatory of that,” he said.
