Essentially you have three main choices when it comes to how your supeannuation money is managed. They are:
- Industry funds such as Australian Super and Australian Retirement Trust (ART).
- Retail funds.
- Self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) or Small APRA Fund (SAF).
If you are a government employee, you will likely be able to join a commonwealth or state super scheme.
The type of superannuation vehicle you use will depend on your goals and objectives. The industry funds tend to offer limited flexibility around how money is invested, but also offer the benefits of scale.
Retail super accounts can be personalised to your needs and SMSFs enable you to invest in ‘non custodial’ assets as well as borrow to buy certain types of assets.
SAFs are similar to SMSFs in some respects and have other features that SMSFs don’t have.
If you are going overseas and you are a trustee of an SMSF, you need to give consideration to whether the fund will remain compliant while you are overseas. These residency rules are complex and you may need to obtain specialised advice as to whether there is a need to make changes to the trustees while you are overseas.