A company can issue different classes of shares with the rights and restrictions attached to them relating to distributions, voting and receiving notice of meetings, distinguishing it from other classes. A SMSF trustee company has several restrictions on it though which we believe would make issuing different classes of shares futile.
The SMSF corporate trustee is not only prohibited from distributing its income or property to its members, but also only permitted to act as a trustee of a regulated superannuation fund, meaning it wouldn’t be holding any assets for the benefit of its members or deriving any income anyway. Decisions made by the company on behalf of the super fund are made by the directors of the SMSF corporate trustee in accordance with the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993.
It is for these reasons that the Patricia Holdings SMSF Trustee company constitution only allows for ordinary or preference class shares to be issued at the time of company registration. There is, however, a clause in the constitution that allows members to issue new classes of shares and vary their rights by way of special resolution as they see fit.
