ATO finalises guidance on death benefits

SuperConcepts executive manager of SMSF technical and private wealth Graeme Colley said the ATO has provided further details about how death benefit pensions work in the finalised version of the guidance.

“In paragraph 14, for example, it indicates that setting up a bank account for a reversionary pensioner won’t stop it from being a reversion, because of the automatic reversion provisions there,” Mr Colley told SMSF Adviser.

“I think that’s a good thing because in some cases while the payment is automatically going through after the death of the individual, due to the automatic crediting of the pension, it would still go through to the account of the deceased for maybe one or two payments. The bank would then accredit it to the reversionary bank account.”

Mr Colley said it was a practical approach by the ATO to the problem as it won’t stop the pension from being reversionary, even though there might be a small break between the time it was paid to the individual who died and when it goes through to the reversionary after that.  

Paragraphs nine and 13 show how a reversion works.

“Some people in the industry are using the word automatic, [but] it’s just that there’s no choice of whether you take it or you don’t, or you take it in a particular form, it just goes straight through to you. I think that’s the right way to look at it,” Mr Colley said.

The guidance also addresses life insurance policies and income from non-reversionary pensions.  

“I think it’s more interesting for the reversionary pensions because when you’re looking at reversionary pensions, the value of that pension is at the death of the individual,” Mr Colley said.

“So if the income or the proceeds of the insurance policies come into act as reversionary pension, that won’t be taken into account in the value of the reversionary pension because it’s valued at the time of death rather than some time down the track as a non-reversionary pension would.”

Mr Colley said there are differences between these two types of pensions and depending on which one you use, there may be advantages in the start-up period of these pensions.

In paragraphs 27 and 28, the guidance talks about a 12-month leeway with non-reversionary pensions, he explained.

“It’s talking about the fact that if income or life policies that come into the account, prior to the commencement of that reversionary pension, then it’ll be the higher value and that will be counted because it’s supposed to be the commencement date of the non-reversionary pension, but with the reversionary pension, it starts from the date of death.”