This week’s Super Alert notes three Bills which recently received Royal Assent, ASIC’s extended relief for portfolio holdings disclosure and ASIC’s warning to trustees on PMIF communications.
Treasury Laws Amendment (Ending Grandfathered Conflicted Remuneration) Bill 2019 – Royal Assent
On 28 October 2019, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Ending Grandfathered Conflicted Remuneration) Bill 2019 (referred to in our Super Alert of 18 October 2019) received Royal Assent and is now Act No. 87 of 2019.
The new Act will ‘end the grandfathering of conflicted remuneration by 1 January 2021’ and includes ‘a power to make regulations to establish a scheme, that will provide that those people paying conflicted remuneration rebate clients for any remuneration that would be paid after 1 January 2021’.
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Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Measures No. 2) Bill 2019 – Royal Assent
On 28 October 2019, the Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Measures No. 2) Bill 2019 (referred to in our Super Alert of 18 October 2019) received Royal Assent and is now Act No. 94 of 2019.
The objectives of the new Act include amending:
- The Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999 to ‘enable the [ATO] to pay interest on amounts held by the commissioner that are proactively reunified with a person’s active superannuation account’;
- The Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Regulations 1999 to ‘prescribe the rate of interest payable on inactive low balance accounts and amounts proactively reunified by the [ATO]’; and
- The Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to ‘extend the concessional tax treatment for genuine redundancy and early retirement scheme payments made to individuals who are 65 years or older provided the dismissal or retirement occurs before they reach pension age’.
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Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Tax Integrity and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2019 – Royal Assent
On 28 October 2019, the Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Tax Integrity and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2019 (referred to in our Super Alert of 28 October 2019) received Royal Assent and is now Act No. 95 of 2019.
One of the objectives of this new Act is to amend the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 to ‘ensure that an individual’s salary sacrifice contributions cannot be used to reduce an employer’s minimum superannuation guarantee contributions’.
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ASIC extends relief for portfolio holdings disclosure
On 29 October 2019, ASIC Corporations (Amendment) Instrument 2019/1056 was registered. It amends ASIC Class Order [CO 14/443] to ‘provide legal certainty about the first reporting day for portfolio holdings disclosure’.
ASIC explains that the portfolio holdings disclosure obligations in section 1017BB of the Corporations Act 2001 ‘require most RSEs licensees to publish information about their fund’s portfolio holdings on the fund’s website. The first reporting date was due to be 31 December 2019 but, as a result of regulations being delayed and ASIC Corporations (Amendment) Instrument [2019/1056], this date will now be extended to 31 December 2020’.
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ASIC warns trustees on member communications for Putting Members’ Interests First reforms
On 29 October 2019, ASIC issued a letter to the superannuation industry about the Putting Members’ Interests First reforms and ongoing communications about insurance in superannuation. On 30 October 2019, ASIC followed up by issuing a media release calling on ‘superannuation trustees to improve the standard of communication to fund members about important reforms impacting member insurance arrangements’.
In particular, ASIC expects trustees to help their members understand the impact of the reforms and to make good decisions by:
- ‘Providing balanced and factual communications, that include appropriate context about the reforms’, and
- ‘Tailoring communications to the needs of their members’.
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This article was written by Natalie Cambrell, Partner and Joseph Cheung, Solicitor.