Company Constitution Variation to Leading Member SMSF Corporate Trustee

About Product

This document can upgrade a regular SMSF Company Constitution to a Special Purpose Leading Member SMSF Company Trustee. The Leading Member is the initial person who is provided with the power to appoint and remove a Member or Trustee, and is appointed as the Leading Member of the Fund for which this company acts as Trustee.

LightYear Docs can also complete bulk constitution upgrades. Our team can help you achieve these upgrades. It's fast, efficient and compliant. When completed in bulk, these upgrades can become more cost efficient than a singular upgrade.

► $129.00 (inc GST) - OR provided under your unlimited membership

► The master document has been signed off by Abbott & Mourly and is congruent with Australian law.

General Information

The LightYear Docs Leading Member Special Purpose SMSF Company Trustee is a reduced version of a company which will not pay dividends, as its sole purpose will be to act as a corporate trustee of an SMSF. The Leading Member of the Fund is appointed as Chair of the company.

The Leading Member is the initial person who is provided with the power to appoint and remove a Member or Trustee, and is appointed as the Leading Member of the Fund for which this company acts as Trustee.

Benefits

Flexible and matches the requirements of the Corporations Act 2001 for a special purpose corporate trustee.
The Leading Member of the Fund is automatically appointed as chair.
One Director – one vote rule with Leading Member veto power.
The Leading Member can appoint or remove Directors.
Only ordinary class of shares offered.
On death of a member, the Board of Directors must appoint the deceased member’s LPR as a Director or lose its trusteeship.
On death, only the deceased member’s LPR as a Director has a vote in relation to the payment of the deceased member’s death benefits.
All of the shares of the company are held by the Leading Member. On the death of the Leading Member, these shares are cancelled and new shares issued to the incoming Leading Member.

Frequently Asked Legal Questions

Who acts as Chair?

The Leading Member of the Fund is the chair and has the casting vote in the event of any locked vote on the Board. The Leading Member has a veto on any Board decision.

Is Proportional Voting an option?

The LightYear Docs special purpose Trustee company generally provides for one Director – one vote rule but a proportional rule based on representative member account balances can be implemented by the Directors.

What happens on the death of a member/Director of the SMSF corporate trustee?

On death of a member, the Board of Directors must appoint the deceased member’s LPR as a Director or lose its trusteeship. In addition, the deceased member’s LPR as a Director has the only vote in relation to the payment of the deceased member’s death benefits.

What can the Leading Member control?

The Leading Member holds a powerful position in the company and owns all the shares and has Board veto power. In addition, the Leading Member is the only person who can appoint or remove a Director.

What happens when the Leading Member dies?

The Fund Trust Deed will provide succession in terms of the Leading Member and on the death of the Leading Member, these shares are cancelled and new shares issued to the incoming Leading Member.

How long does this document take to assemble?

Depending on the complexity of the data, this document should take approximately 5-10 secs to assemble. If you experience timing outside of this please contact Support via the Surge app, alternatively please read this article for troubleshooting tips https://info.lightyeardocs.com.au/supportcentre/troubleshooting-longer-assembly-times-timeouts

Do you have a data capture form I can use?

Yes. It is available here: https://info.lightyeardocs.com.au/supportcentre/data-capture-form-company-variation-upgrade

Is this document a legal document?

All master documents have been signed off by Abbott & Mourly lawyers. Tony Anamourlis of Abbott & Mourly advises that “at no time, due to inbuilt legal protection and security measures can a user change or amend a document on the LightYear Docs platform that has been signed off by a practicing solicitor. To do so would result in the user drafting a document of a legal nature and engaging in the provision of legal services. In addition, it would be a breach of copyright. In our opinion when completing the form fields through the LightYear Docs platform, users and their employees are merely carrying out an administrative task which is not the provision of legal advice.”

However in some complex areas such as the insertion of a varied range of client instructions into a Will or other such documents the user must be mindful of the extent to which a document is being drafted by the user rather than merely the administrative task of completing a form where the relevant fields are inserted into the reviewed and signed legal document provided by Abbott & Mourly.

The above advice is born out of numerous cases dating back to Re Sanderson, Ex parte Law Institute of Victoria [1927] VLR 394, 397 where the Court held:

“if a person does a thing usually done by a solicitor, and does it in such a way as to lead to the reasonable inference that he is a solicitor – if he combines professing to be a solicitor with action usually taken by a solicitor – I think he then does act as a solicitor.”

Likewise in ACCC v Murray (2002) 121 FCR 428, 448 where Murray was building a franchise business that involved the legal writing and drafting of Wills from scratch based on the client’s personal circumstances. The Court held that this process was legal work.

Is the document easy to read?

All LightYear Docs products are written in plain English and assessed for readability. If at any time you come across any errors, please contact support@lightyeardocs.com.au.

What lawyers sign off on the LightYear Docs documents?

All LightYear documents are prepared and signed off by Abbott & Mourly from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Are the LightYear Docs documents reviewed regularly?

All LightYear Docs documents form part of the LightYear Docs internal review process. We review all documents at least annually or when required to do so due to changes in legislation. Further details of this process and a review schedule is include on this website.

Can I get a sample of this document?

Yes, please email support@lightyeardocs.com.au to request a sample document for you to review.