Self-managed super funds
Your super, run by you. With people who do this every day.
An SMSF puts the investment decisions and the legal responsibility in your hands. That is worth doing when you have a reason for the control - and worth avoiding when you do not. We will tell you which one you are.
The one that changed
Buying your business premises with super.
Since 10 August 2026 it is the only property purchase an SMSF can borrow to make. If your business pays rent to a landlord, this is the page to read.
The basics
What a self-managed super fund actually is.
Six members at most, the members as trustees, and a wider set of things the fund can own. Everything else follows from those three facts.
You are the trustee.
In a retail or industry fund, someone else decides where the money goes. In an SMSF the members are the trustees, which means the investment decisions, the paperwork and the legal responsibility are all yours - with advisers, an accountant and an auditor around you.
Up to six members.
Usually a couple, sometimes a family, occasionally business partners. Balances are pooled, which is what makes a larger purchase - a commercial property, for instance - reachable when neither balance would manage it alone.
A wider investment set.
Direct shares, term deposits, managed funds and direct property, including the premises your own business trades from. That last one is the reason most business owners look at an SMSF at all.
The same tax treatment, run yourself.
Earnings taxed at 15% in accumulation, and generally nothing in retirement phase. An SMSF gets no special rate - what it gets is control over what is held and when it is sold.
Is it for you?
The honest version of who an SMSF suits.
This is the part most pages skip, because the answer is often no. General information only - whether it suits you personally is an advice conversation.
It can suit you if...
you have a specific reason for wanting control - most often buying your business premises - a balance large enough that the fixed running costs are a small share of it, and the time or the adviser to keep the compliance right.
It often does not if...
the reason is a general sense that you would do better yourself, the balance is small enough that fixed costs eat the difference, or nobody involved wants to think about it again after setup. An industry fund is not a failure to plan.
There is no magic number.
You will read that an SMSF needs a particular balance. ASIC moved away from a fixed benchmark to a cost-versus-benefit assessment for the individual, and that is the honest position: it depends on what you are trying to do and what it will cost you to do it.
How we help
What LINK Wealth does, and what it doesn't.
We are licensed financial advisers. Setup, accounting and the annual return sit with LINK Advisors; lending sits with LINK Advance; the audit is independent by law. Saying so is more useful than implying one team does everything.
Whether it suits you at all.
The first question, and the one worth paying for. We look at your balance, your goal and the alternative, and we will tell you when the answer is no - which it often is.
The commercial property strategy.
Buying the premises your business rents, so the rent builds your super instead of a landlord's. Since 10 August 2026 it is the only property purchase an SMSF can borrow to make.
The investment strategy.
The document the ATO requires and a lender will read: diversification, liquidity, and how the fund pays a benefit when someone retires.
Insurance inside the fund.
Trustees have to consider cover for members. What it costs, what it covers and whether holding it in super is the right place for it.
Contributions and retirement phase.
Caps, timing, and the move from accumulation to pension - where the tax on earnings can fall to nothing.
The parts we do not do.
Establishment, accounting and the annual return sit with LINK Advisors; the lending sits with LINK Advance; the audit must be independent. We say who does what rather than implying we do all of it.
Our teams operate independently, as regulation requires. With your consent, we work together to implement the strategy, keeping things simple for you.
Go deeper
The rest of the SMSF picture.
Each of these answers one question properly rather than all of them briefly.
SMSF commercial property
Buy the premises your business operates from, through your fund. The strategy, who qualifies, and the tax treatment.
Read on →
SMSF property rules
What a fund can and cannot buy after the 10 August 2026 borrowing changes - including what is now off the table.
Read on →
Borrowing (LRBAs)
Limited recourse borrowing and bare trusts, explained, and what changed for new arrangements.
Read on →
What an SMSF costs
Setup and annual running costs, and the balance question - at what point does it stop being worth it?
Read on →
Investment strategy
The document the ATO requires every fund to have, what has to be in it, and why lenders ask for it.
Read on →
Insurance in an SMSF
The cover trustees must consider for members, and whether super is the right place to hold it.
Read on →
Your SMSF questions, answered.
What is a self-managed super fund?
A superannuation fund with up to six members where the members are also the trustees. Instead of a retail or industry fund choosing the investments, you do - which is the appeal and the obligation in the same sentence. The fund has its own trust deed, its own bank account and its own tax file number, lodges its own annual return and must be audited every year by an approved SMSF auditor who is independent of whoever does the accounts.
What are the benefits of an SMSF?
Control over what the fund owns, a wider investment set including direct property, the ability to pool up to six balances toward a single asset, and - for business owners - the ability to buy the premises the business trades from so the rent builds your own retirement. Tax is the same 15% on earnings in accumulation phase as any other fund; an SMSF does not buy a better rate, it buys choice about what is held and when it is sold.
How much do you need to start an SMSF?
There is no legal minimum, and ASIC moved away from recommending a fixed balance benchmark in favour of assessing cost against benefit for the individual. The practical question is proportion: an SMSF carries fixed annual costs regardless of size, so on a small balance those costs are a large share of the return, and on a larger one they are a rounding error. What matters more is whether you have a reason for the control that a pooled fund cannot give you.
Can an SMSF buy property?
Yes, and it is the most common reason people set one up. A fund can buy residential or commercial property outright with its own money. Borrowing is where it narrowed: since 10 August 2026 a new limited recourse borrowing arrangement can only be used to acquire business real property - premises used wholly and exclusively in a business. Arrangements entered into before that date continue and can still be refinanced, and contracts exchanged before it are unaffected.
Can I live in a property my SMSF owns?
No. Residential property held by an SMSF cannot be lived in or rented by you or any related party - that is the sole purpose test, and it applies however the property was bought. The exception is business real property: your own business can lease premises from your fund, at market rent, under a documented lease. That exception is the whole basis of the commercial property strategy.
What are a trustee's responsibilities?
Running the fund only to provide retirement benefits, keeping fund money separate from your own, preparing and reviewing a written investment strategy, keeping records, valuing assets at market value each year, lodging the annual return and having the fund audited. Trustees are personally liable for compliance breaches, and penalties apply to each trustee individually - which is one reason many funds use a corporate trustee.
Individual or corporate trustee?
A corporate trustee costs more to set up and carries an annual ASIC fee, but it simplifies changes in membership, keeps the fund's assets clearly separated, and reduces penalty exposure because a fine is levied once against the company rather than against each individual trustee. Most SMSF lenders require one. It is a setup decision, and LINK Advisors handles establishment.
Do I need a financial adviser to run an SMSF?
Not legally, but the decisions that matter most are the ones where advice pays for itself: whether an SMSF suits you at all, what the fund should hold, how a property purchase interacts with your balance and your liquidity, and when to move to retirement phase. Setting up and administering the fund is a separate service again, and that sits with LINK Advisors.
Innovative solutions. Unmatched service. Delivered as promised.
Not sure an SMSF is right for you?
That is the question worth answering first, and it costs nothing to ask. We will look at your balance, your goal and the alternative, and give you a straight answer either way.
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