Product Information
How does the process work?
- If you do not have a Cleardocs account, register as a user.
- Log into your Cleardocs account.
- Select Actuarial Certificate from the Superannuation menu and click "Start a new order".
- You will be taken to the Heffron online order form which you will need to complete. If the fund has a
Cleardocs deed then we can
pre-populate the fund information into the Heffron online order form.
When you have completed the online order form Heffron will:
- provide you immediately with an approximate tax exemption percentage; and
- email the necessary documents to you:
- for an SMSF providing allocated, account-based and/or market-linked pensions - an actuarial
certificate; or
- for an SMSF providing defined benefit pensions - an actuarial valuation.
Does the SMSF require a Cleardocs trust deed?
No, an SMSF does not require a Cleardocs SMSF Trust Deed to obtain an actuarial certificate through
Cleardocs.
How long will it take for me to receive the actuarial certificate?
After you complete Heffron's online order form and provide the required documents and information, you will
receive
an approximate tax exemption percentage on your screen. You will then receive the actuarial certificate by email
from
Heffron:
- for a SMSF providing allocated, account-based and/or market-linked pensions – within 1 business day
- for defined benefit pensions – within 5 business days
How often does the SMSF require an actuarial certificate?
A separate actuarial certificate is required for each financial year that the fund wishes to claim a tax
exemption.
Which SMSFs require an actuarial certificate?
There are two situations where an actuarial certificate is required:
- a fund is paying an account balance pension - for example, account based or market linked – and the
assets
are unsegregated; and/or
- a fund is paying a defined benefit pension - for example, complying lifetime, complying life expectancy or
commutable lifetime.
For a diagrammatical overview, click
here.
You will see that the timing of the pension commencement during the course of the year also plays an important
role in
determining your client's requirement for an actuarial certificate.
What types of SMSFs can use Cleardocs to obtain their actuarial certificate?
We can provide you with actuarial certificates for all types and combinations of SMSF pensions – account
based,
market linked and defined benefit.
What is "segregation" and "segregated assets"?
Segregation is only relevant in determining when an actuarial certificate is required if the fund is not paying a
defined benefit pension. If a fund is paying a defined benefit pension an annual actuarial valuation will always
be
required.
Specific assets within the fund are segregated if they are solely used to back the pension. This means that all
members of the fund receive a pension with all of their balances for the entire financial year and the fund has
no
reserves.
A fund with both pension and accumulation balances might achieve segregation by earmarking specific assets for
the
pension balances and other assets for the accumulation balances. This is administratively complex and therefore
relatively rare.
Bulk certificates?
If you are interested in a bulk order for actuarial certificates, then let us know. We can speak with our
partners at
Heffron about any special rates.
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