Question 1

Who acts as Chair?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 2

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

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 3

What can the Leading Member control?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 4

What happens when the Leading Member dies?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 5

How long does this document take to assemble?

Accepted Answer

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 .

Question 6

Do you have a data capture form I can use?

Accepted Answer

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

Question 7

Is Proportional Voting an option?

Accepted Answer

The LYD 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.

Question 8

Is this document a legal document?

Accepted Answer

All master documents have been signed off by LY Legal lawyers. Tony Anamourlis of LY Legal advises that “at no time, due to inbuilt legal protection and security measures can a user change or amend a document on the LYD 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 LYD 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 LY Legal.

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.

Question 9

What lawyers sign off on LYD documents?

Accepted Answer

All LYD documents are prepared and signed off by LY Legal.

Question 10

Is the document easy to read?

Accepted Answer

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

Question 11

Are the LYD documents reviewed regularly?

Accepted Answer

All LYD documents form part of the LYD 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.

Question 12

Can I get a sample of this document?

Accepted Answer

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

Company Constitution Variation to Leading Member SMSF Corporate Trustee