Questions Begin | Australia

Introduction

The Cleardocs Service ("the Service") is provided to you by Thomson Reuters. If you use the Service in any way, you will do so on the basis of the disclaimers on the relevant pages that you use to access the Service and the then current version of these Terms and Conditions ("Terms"). By using the Service in any way, you accept these Terms, so please read them carefully. If you accept them, you may use the Service, including to order a document or an ancillary service. If you reject them, you must not use the Service. When you place your order for any document or ancillary service; you agree that you accept the version of these Terms that apply at the time of order.

Licence and fees

Thomson Reuters agrees to provide you with a licence to order documents or related services from the Service on the condition that you accept these Terms and pay our fees in the way required. The licence is not exclusive and is not transferable. The licence begins on the day you use the Service and ends in accordance with these Terms (see below).

Thomson Reuters acknowledgements

Thomson Reuters agrees that:
1. it has taken all reasonable steps to engage an appropriately qualified professional adviser both to prepare the master documents, to ensure that they are accurate and appropriate for the type of document or related services that you order, and to provide all information, commentary, advice and other documents (including sample letters), subject to these Terms;
2. all your personal and billing information that is identifiable to you will be kept confidential and will be protected by security identification particulars. We will not disclose that information (in a way that makes the information identifiable to you) to anyone else without your consent unless required to do so by law; and
3. the documents you order through the Service will, if relevant, be delivered electronically to you on the earlier of when you download them or when you click to have us send them to you by email to the email address you have nominated. If you order our printing, binding, and courier delivery service, then the package should be delivered as set out on this page https://www.cleardocs.com/resources-printing-binding-courier-delivery.html.

Consumer Law

These Terms do not, and do not purport to, restrict or modify or have the effect of excluding, restricting or modifying any laws, rights or remedies imposed and required to be binding by statute or law, including the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).

Privacy

Your Privacy
1. You acknowledge that Personal Information collected, used and disclosed may be used for a variety of purposes including:
  1. to supply the Service;
  2. to monitor use of the Service for the purposes of further development and to ensure the Service meets your needs and interests;
  3. to administer your account (where applicable) and to enforce these Terms;
  4. for marketing purposes which may include disclosure of your information to other members of the global Thomson Reuters group of companies; and
  5. other purposes as described in our Privacy Statement.
2. A copy of our Privacy Statement can be viewed at Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement. It tells you more about the types of organisations to which we usually disclose Personal Information. We will comply with our Privacy Statement and the Privacy Act in relation to your Personal Information.
3. You agree to advise us in writing if you do not want us to use Personal Information disclosed by you to us for marketing purposes.
4. You expressly acknowledge and consent to:
  1. us transferring and disclosing Personal Information provided by you to us to our third party service providers located outside of Australia (including, but not limited to India and the United States) to the extent required in providing access to, maintaining and supporting the Service as part of our information technology arrangements; and
  2. such third-party service providers storing and processing such Personal Information provided by you on servers outside of Australia (including, but not limited to servers located in the United States).
5. If you fail to provide any Personal Information requested by us, we may be unable to supply the products that you order or request.
6. If you apply to us for credit terms we may give certain information about you including identity particulars to a credit reporting agency and we will tell you separately about other uses and disclosures of your Personal Information relevant to your application for, or our provision of, credit.
7. You agree that if you use the Service to upload Personal Information or Sensitive Information about another individual, you will ensure that that individual is aware:
  1. that you have uploaded such information to the Service and the reason;
  2. has provided their explicit written consent to such disclosure; and
  3. of the details in this clause 5 that apply to information disclosed.
8. You are responsible for ensuring that if a third party is required to disclose Personal Information to us for the purposes of these Terms on your behalf or at your request, such disclosure by the third party complies with the Privacy Act.
9. If we are required to retain any Personal Information by law:
  1. you warrant that you have taken all steps to ensure that we are permitted to do so; and
  2. on reasonable notice, and the payment of a reasonable charge, we will make such information available for inspection by you and your auditors.
10. You acknowledge and understand that, while the Service is used on a transactional basis and can involve intermittent use, we will not retain the Personal Information or Sensitive Information you upload to the Service indefinitely. If you are not actively using your account on a regular basis, you should ask us to delete any such information that you have uploaded to the Service.
11. You acknowledge and understand that:
  1. the Service is not a document repository and it is your responsibility to save copies of all documents and other information generated or entered via the Service in your own document repository; and
  2. we may periodically delete Personal Information or Sensitive Information you have uploaded to the Service and/or your account if there is no activity on the account after providing written notice to you that we intend to delete the relevant information and/or account.
12. If we are required to retain any Personal Information by law:
  1. you warrant that you have taken all steps to ensure that we are permitted to do so; and
  2. on reasonable notice, and the payment of a reasonable charge, we will make such information available for inspection by you and your auditors.

Limits on your use of the Service

Thomson Reuters agrees that you will have a licence to use the documents that you order when using the Service.
In relation to your use of the Service and the documents you order, you agree that:
1. you must not use any part of the documents in connection with creating another document;
2. you must not use any part of the documents for any purpose except the specific purpose for which they were ordered;
3. you must not copy any part of the documents for any purpose except in relation to the transaction for which they were ordered;
4. you must not modify the documents in any way after they are sent to you;
5. you must not interfere with, alter or attempt to copy or reproduce any part of the Service or the documents that you order while using them;
6. you must not incorporate any part of the Service in any other program, system or document creation package;
7. you must not represent that the documents ordered using the Service were created by your own resources, or those of a third party (other than our resources or those of anyone else who signs-off and endorses for us the master documents from which your documents are generated); and
8. your account and the associated data you upload to the Service will be deleted if your account remains inactive for a period of time. We will provide you with written notice before we delete your account.

We do not give legal, tax, accounting, commercial or other professional advice

You agree that:
1. we cannot, and do not, give you legal, tax, accounting, commercial or other professional advice;
2. Thomson Reuters is not a professional services firm;
3. the Service provides information to help you answer the questions and to order a document and that the information contained in the documents is information only, not advice;
4. we cannot and do not warrant that a document you decide to order is appropriate or suits your needs;
5. we cannot and do not warrant that your use of the Service is appropriate or suits your needs;
6. the legal, taxation, accounting and commercial effects of a document vary and a document's suitability will therefore vary according to particular circumstances;
7. only you know the purpose for which you intend to apply a document that you order and that we are not responsible for the choice you make regarding the document that you order;
8. you must consult with a lawyer, taxation adviser, accountant, or commercial or other appropriately qualified professional adviser (not Thomson Reuters) for advice concerning the suitability of a document that you order using the Service;
9. the master documents are general only and prepared by the person named as the author on the relevant page of our website (not Thomson Reuters) and that Thomson Reuters does not endorse and disclaims responsibility for them;
10. Unless expressly stated otherwise, Thomson Reuters does not provide the information, commentary, advice and other documents (including sample letters) which appear on our website. Instead, all of that material is provided by the person named as the author on the relevant page of our website — Thomson Reuters does not endorse that information, commentary or advice;
11. Thomson Reuters does not retain copies of documents generated using the Service. Whilst you may regenerate a copy of a document previously generated by using information you have previously uploaded in using the Service, Thomson Reuters does not warrant that an exact copy of the original document will and is not responsible for any errors or differences between the originally generated document and a subsequent version you elect to generate using the data previously uploaded;
12. Thomson Reuters disclaims responsibility for the information, commentary, advice and other documents (including sample letters) referred to in these Terms; and
13. Thomson Reuters is not aware of any reason to doubt the accuracy or the quality of the work of any author of the master documents and associated information referred to in these Terms for any of our documents. Even so, Thomson Reuters is not a professional adviser and does not endorse that work. Thomson Reuters' only responsibility is to engage a person with the relevant expertise, to draft the relevant document which it does on the basis that you will seek appropriate advice in making use of that document in your particular circumstances.

The document you order depends on your answers

You agree that:
1. certain information and particular clauses from the master documents are included in the documents you order as a result of the answers you provide to questions you answer when using the Service;
2. certain information is included in the documents that you order as a result of the answers you provide to questions you answer when using the Service;
3. you are fully and solely responsible for the information included as a result of the answers you give to the questions; and
4. we are not responsible for any mistake that you make in understanding the questions or how to answer them.

Accuracy of information provided

You warrant that all of the information which you provide to Thomson Reuters, including particulars as to your personal and contact details or details of other persons, is accurate and correct and that you have fully and accurately disclosed your identity.

We are not responsible for your mistakes or personal and sensitive information you upload to the Service — you indemnify us

Except for any cost, loss, liability or damage directly caused or contributed to by Thomson Reuters, you agree that you indemnify us in relation to any cost, loss, liability or damage that any of you, your client, or a third party suffers:
1. because the document that you order is not suitable for its intended purpose or does not suit the relevant circumstances;
2. because you fail to obtain formal advice from an appropriately qualified professional adviser concerning whether the document you choose is suitable for its intended purpose or is suitable for particular circumstances;
3. because of the answers you provide to questions asked of you when using the Service;
4. because you do not answer all questions completely and accurately;
5. because you modify the documents after they are provided to you by us;
6. because you fail to delete or ask us to delete Personal or Sensitive Information from the Service that you have uploaded to the Service on behalf of a client of yours where you no longer have a legitimate reason to retain this information on the Service; or
7. because you breach these Terms in some other way.
You agree that you continually indemnify us against any cost, loss, liability, or damage that we incur as a result of your use of the Service except for any cost, loss, liability or damage directly caused or contributed to by Thomson Reuters.

Our partners

Thomson Reuters may promote to you, or refer you to, products or services of a third party (Partner).
A Partner may (but will not necessarily) hold an Australian Financial Services Licence under the Corporations Act (Cth), depending on the nature of products or services the Partner offers. A Partner may from time to time pay fees to Thomson Reuters in return for this promotion or referral. The fee may depend on whether you agree to obtain products or services from the Partner.
A Partner may provide products or services that are complementary to the Service — for example, in relation to a cash management account, trademark products or actuarial products. You are not compelled to acquire those products or services from the Partner. Regardless of whether or not you acquire those products or services from the Partner, Thomson Reuters will still provide our Service to you to the extent that we can without those complementary services — for example, by allowing you to use our website, interface and user system to register as a customer and to record your answers and by storing your answers and sending you newsletter updates, etc.
When you use a Partner's complementary products and services:
1. Thomson Reuters is not responsible for those products and services;
2. Thomson Reuters provides access to those products and services for convenience only and does not endorse the Partner or the products and services available from that Partner;
3. you access those products and services at your own risk;
4. it is for you to decide whether you will, or should, rely on the Partner's products and services; and
5. you agree with Thomson Reuters that you acknowledge the disclaimers made by that Partner and that you will comply with any separate Terms which the Partner applies, and requires you to consent to, in respect of those products and services.
When you use a Partner's website, or products and services available from that website:
1. Thomson Reuters is not responsible for any information or hyperlinks contained on that website;
2. Thomson Reuters provides access to that website for convenience only and does not endorse the Partner, the Partner's website or the products and services available from that website;
3. you access that website, and products and services available from that website, at your own risk;
4. it is for you to decide whether you will, or should, rely on the Partner's website, or products and services available from that website; and
5. you agree with Thomson Reuters that you acknowledge the disclaimers that appear on those websites and that you will comply with the terms that you agree to at the time you use the products and services available from those websites.

Our website and other websites

You agree that:
1. each time you order a document from us, you agree to the then current version of these Terms. When you create an account or place your order, we will provide a link to, or show you the current version of these Terms and you must use the indicated method to evidence your acceptance of that version of the Terms;
2. we do not warrant the accuracy or appropriateness of the contents of our website;
3. the information and commentary on our website is general only and is prepared by the person named as the author on the relevant page of our website (not Thomson Reuters, unless expressly stated otherwise) and that Thomson Reuters does not endorse it and disclaims responsibility for it;
4. our website may contain hyperlinks and pointers to other websites and that we are not responsible for any information or other hyperlinks accessible via such websites;
5. we provide the hyperlinks and pointers to you simply for your convenience and we are not endorsing any of them;
6. you access these other websites you do so at your own risk; and
7. it is for you to decide whether these other websites should be relied on.

Our liability is limited

You agree that if we are prohibited by law from excluding all implied warranties and conditions, then our liability will be limited to, at our option:
1. replacing the document you used the Service to order;
2. supply of some equivalent document;
3. amendment of the document; or
4. the payment of the cost of such replacement, supply or amendment.
You agree that:
1. to the extent that we are not prohibited by law from limiting our liability, then our liability is limited in the same manner as provided under clause 19 , including in respect of any liability that arises as a consequence of our negligence;
2. subject to law including the Australian Consumer Law, our liability to you for any matter related to the subject matter of these Terms will not include any special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages or loss of profits and will not exceed the cost to you for the particular transaction which has caused you the loss or damage; and
3. subject to law including the Australian Consumer Law, we do not warrant that the operation of the Service will be uninterrupted or that the Service is virus free or error free.

Our intellectual property is not diminished

You agree that:
1. we or our licensors remain the owner of all the intellectual property and know-how that resides in the documents and the Service;
2. you are licensed to use the Service for the sole purpose of ordering documents; and
3. you get no property right whatsoever in relation to the Service, and no ownership in the copyright of the documents that you order.

Recovering revenue lost through misuse or breach

If we discover that we have lost revenue through your breach of these Terms, then you agree that we may recover from you each of the following:
1. the revenue we have lost;
2. our costs of discovering our loss and the extent of it;
3. our costs of recovering the revenue; and
4. default interest on any amount owing under this clause.
Also, if we can show that we have lost revenue through your breach of these Terms, then you agree that we have the right to audit your operations (at your reasonable cost) to determine the extent of our loss.
Clauses 23 and 24 do not limit in any way the recovery by Thomson Reuters of all other amounts from you which are recoverable at law in respect of any breach of these Terms by you.

The licence ends when you have ordered your document

You agree that:
1. the licence to you is limited to the creation of the documents for which you have paid and that once those documents have been ordered, the licence ends;
2. your licence will also end if you breach any material obligations contained in these Terms; and
3. if you breach any material obligation contained in these Terms, then we may deny you any further access to the Service.

How you pay us

Our standard arrangement is for you to pay us online by credit card through our designated bank's online payment system. Our system will transfer you to that site when you click the relevant button. Our bank's system should return you to the relevant page on our website at the relevant time.
However, if you are a high-volume user, then we may — at our absolute discretion — agree to allow you to pay on invoice (instead of by credit card). If we do agree to that, then the following rules apply:
1. At the time you order, we electronically provide you with a tax invoice for our fees. You can download the invoice from our website or click to have us email it to you at the email address you provide. You must pay all Thomson Reuters' fees (including printing and binding fees, and company seal fees etc.) within 7 days after you order.
2. At the time you place an order through our website to apply for any government registration etc. (for example, a company registration application or a trademark application), we electronically provide you with our invoice for any government fees etc. that we pay (or arrange to be paid) on your behalf as part of lodging your application. You can download the invoice from our website or click to have us email it to you at the email address you provide. You must pay us the amount of those government fees etc. within 24 hours after you order.
3. If you do not pay on time, then we may — at our absolute discretion, and without giving you notice — do any one or more of the following:
  1. end the arrangement by which you pay on invoice (so that you must pay by credit card);
  2. use amounts you pay us to pay-off any amount you owe at our choice — for example, we may first pay-off any amount you owe us in respect of government fees we have paid;
  3. set our system so that you no longer have access to document packages you have ordered from us in the past (regardless of whether you have paid for them);
  4. charge default interest on any amount you owe us.

Refunds, returns, exchanges

Our liability to refund, return or exchange is limited to the circumstances set out in these Terms and is otherwise entirely at our discretion. In order to expeditiously process your claim for a refund, return or an exchange, we request that you send all claims to the following email support@cleardocs.com and include:
1. the intended purpose to which the documents were to be applied;
2. the identity and contact details of the person for whom you purchased the document (we may contact that person to discuss, and request copies of, the documents you have provided to them);
3. the reasons that you want a return, a refund, or an exchange;
4. copies of the materials or documents you have provided to that person in place of the Cleardocs document in relation to which you now want a refund, a return, or an exchange; and
5. any other information or materials we ask for that we believe is relevant to our decision.

Severability

Any provision of these Terms that is prohibited or unenforceable in any jurisdiction is ineffective as to that jurisdiction to the extent of the prohibition or unenforceability. That does not invalidate the remaining provisions of these Terms nor affect the validity or enforceability of that provision in any other jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by and are to be read and interpreted according to the laws of New South Wales. Each of Thomson Reuters and you irrevocably and unconditionally submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in that jurisdiction. You may not argue, on the basis of the doctrine of forum non conveniens or any other basis, that the courts of that jurisdiction should not exercise jurisdiction.

Definitions and interpretation

In these Terms:
1. 'Thomson Reuters' means Thomson Reuters (Professional) Australia Limited ABN 64 058 914 668, its agents, officers, successors, authors, licensors and advisers and 'we', 'our' and 'us' have a corresponding meaning;
2. 'the Service' includes the Cleardocs website, the interface, user system, and document merging engine and (where applicable), the menu of legal clauses that is used to generate documents you order, and the services which we provide to you which are ancillary to these services, including telephone and email helplines;
3. 'default interest' means interest on amounts owing calculated at the rate set from time to time under section 22 of the Taxation Administration Act 1996 (NSW);
4. 'document' means a document you order which is generated by the Service;
5. 'lawyer' means an Australian legal practitioner as defined under section 6(1) of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) or under any corresponding law in any other jurisdiction;
6. 'Personal Information' has the meaning given to that term in the Privacy Act.
7. 'Privacy Act' means the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
8. 'master documents' means the master documents on which the documents you order are based, being the full library of possible text that could be included in your document depending on the information you provide when using the Service;
9. 'professional adviser' means a lawyer concerning whether a document or the Service is appropriate or suits your needs or its legal and taxation implications, a registered tax agent concerning a document's taxation, accounting and/or commercial implications or a licensed financial planner concerning a document's financial planning implications or such other professional adviser as is appropriate or suits your needs concerning a document's legal, taxation, accounting and commercial implications;
10. 'you' means the person using the Service, including a person using the Service as agent of another person in which case 'you' means the agent or the agent's principal, or both the agent and the agent's principal;
11. the singular includes the plural and vice versa; and
12. a reference to currency is a reference to Australian dollars.
You agree that each of these definitions has the same meaning wherever they appear on our website.

last updated Aug 2023

Reference:1414693 (Death Benefit Agreement)

The legal information and commentary on this site is general only. Documents ordered through Cleardocs affect the user's legal rights and liabilities. To assess their suitability for the user, legal, accounting and financial advice must be obtained.

Death Benefit Agreement document package: Before you start

Ensuring the Fund's current Deed is up-to-date

The Fund's current Deed needs to allow for Death Benefit Agreements. The questions below help you work out whether you need to update the Fund's Deed.

If you're not sure, then you can check with our lawyers at Maddocks — for free. Ring us on 1300 307 343 and we will arrange it for you.

Is the current deed for the SMSF for which you are creating the Death Benefit Agreement arrangement a Cleardocs deed?

Yes
No

The Fund needs to have the version of the Cleardocs deed that applied after 4 May 2009 — this version caters for Death Benefit Agreements. So please confirm which of the following (if any) apply to the Fund:

The fund was set up on Cleardocs after 4 May 2009 and the Deed has never been updated anywhere.(Remember, that if the SMSF has changed trustee, then before you choose this option you need to check whether the change of trustee involved a deed update — sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.)
The last update to the Deed was done on Cleardocs after 4 May 2009, as part of an "Update to SMSF". (It doesn't matter whether the SMSF was set up on Cleardocs or not.)
The most recent update to the Fund's deed was done on Cleardocs after 4 May 2009, as part of a "Change of Trustee". (It doesn't matter whether the SMSF was set up on Cleardocs or not.)

Select the order from the list below. Cleardocs will then use the answers from there to "pre-populate" the answers for the Death Benefit Agreement you are ordering today.

Check your answers thoroughly

On the next page, the answers you previously entered on Cleardocs for this Fund have been inserted to save you time. However, you must thoroughly check them to make sure they reflect the current situation of the Fund. If any updates or changes to the Fund's structure have taken place, then you should change the answers to reflect the current status.

Select the order from the list below. Cleardocs will then use the answers from there to "pre-populate" the answers for the document package you are ordering today.

Check your answers thoroughly

Select the order from the list below. Cleardocs will then use the answers from there to "pre-populate" the answers for the document package you are ordering today.

Check your answers thoroughly

The Cleardocs Death Benefit Agreement Package assumes the Fund has a Cleardocs deed which caters for Death Benefit Agreements. So before ordering the Package, you must update to the latest version of the Cleardocs deed. You can do that now online for $154.00. It takes about 15 minutes.

If you need advice about updating, then please ring us on 1300 307 343. We will arrange for you to speak to our lawyers at Maddocks — for free.

The types of death benefit arrangements and the order in which they take effect

The Cleardocs deed allows three types of death benefit payment arrangements. They, and the order in which they take effect, are as follows:

death benefit agreements — which bind the trustee and which do not expire;
binding death benefit notices or binding nomination forms — which bind the trustee do not expire until revoked or replaced for SMSFs; and
non-binding nomination forms — which do not bind the trustee but which do not expire until replaced or revoked.

Death benefit agreements take priority over binding death benefit notices and over non-binding nomination forms.

What you need to consider

When you, as a member, are considering signing a binding death benefit notice or a non-binding nomination form it is important to consider that:

a death benefit agreement takes priority over any binding death benefit notice or any non-binding nomination form;
to the extent permitted by superannuation law, the trustee must pay or apply the relevant benefit in accordance with the death benefit agreement. Therefore if you sign a binding death benefit notice or a non-binding nomination form, then they will have no effect on any earlier or later death benefit agreement that you sign; and
if any part of a death benefit agreement is invalid, then the trustee (as required by the fund's deed) will pay or apply the "invalid" part of the death benefit in accordance with any binding death benefit notice, or by reference to any non-binding nomination form, you have signed.

I understand that a Death Benefit Agreement will take priority over any binding death benefit notice or any non-binding nomination form — even if those forms are signed after the Agreement.

Consider consistency of death benefit arrangements with pension terms

It is important to consider how any death benefit nomination or death benefit agreement interacts with the arrangements for payment of a pension to a reversionary beneficiary. The terms of the pension, and the terms of the death benefit nomination or death benefit agreement should be considered together.

For instance, if the pension terms require an automatic reversionary pension, then the death benefit nomination or death benefit agreement has no effect in relation to that pension. If the member wants to ensure all these arrangements — under pension terms, a death benefit nomination or death benefit agreement — are consistent, or to deliberately vary from one to the other, then careful drafting is required and the member should seek professional advice.

Search Cleardocs

Reference:1414693 (Death Benefit Agreement)

Death Benefit Agreement document package: Before you start

Ensuring the Fund's current Deed is up-to-date

The types of death benefit arrangements and the order in which they take effect

What you need to consider

Consider consistency of death benefit arrangements with pension terms