Yawn. When I was a boy we had the doomsday clock set at one minute to hell before nuclear war was going to obliterate all life forms on earth.
 In the 1970's when the first oil crisis (government tax scam) was hoisted on the unsuspecting public, I remember my father laughing and saying there was enough tar sands oil in Alberta Canada alone to supply the world for an indeterminate period certainly enough for my childrens life spans.

Now we have the greenie watermelons (green on the outside and red through and through) mindlessly rabbiting nonsense about the end of the world.

The Vikings colonised Greenland because it was green from 900 A.D to 1100 A.D. and grew grain

We have Governments like the Canadians who allowed the spawning banks off New Foundland to be picked clean so the fishing industry collapsed and we have the Victorian Government clear felling old growth trees and telling us we need another big tax ….yawn

For 15 years we had to put up with listening to accountants and their linked financial planners who tried to push us to sell our commercial business properties that our family solicitor advised us through setting up a unit trust that our SMSF controlled.

The nonsense of diversification by just holding paper equities was shown to be an emperor with no clothes during the GFC.

Back in 1994 when we set up our SMSF I wrote an investment plan in which I gave reasons for sticking with what we were comfortable with, being the two commercial buildings we operated our two businesses from. I mentioned the folly of investing with clowns like …Alan Bond and Christopher Skase in our plan and I still have that plan in which we mentioned our belief that one day the share market would destroy an entire generations retirement plans.

A saying from the 1929 stock market debacle that the share market was no place for widows orphans or retirees.

In the UK and the U.S.A. the sub prime & Alt A mortgage disasters has shown that property is not immune to a financial contageon. The difference is with property provided you have enough equity you can usually ride out the storm. But like any investment if you fly too close to the sun you can be burnt.

In addition to Evolve's explanation with how to keep a property in a 4 member SMSF when a senior members die and death benefits need to be paid out. As pointed out insurance proceeds can help. Better yet is to set up a seperate reserve account in your SMSF with a seperate investment plan to ensure there is enough money to pay out the death benefit without selling the property (ies). Then there is also Keatings sleeping gift that treasury and the ato hate. The anti-detriment provision as follows

The anti-detriment provisions potentially allow trustees to top-up or increase death benefit payments to dependants equal to an amount that would have been available if taxable contributions had not been included in assessable income of the fund.

The anti-detriment payment is made by claiming a tax deduction to compensate for the previously paid contributions tax and associated lost earnings (not the whole death benefit). The benefits of this tax deduction are then passed onto dependants by way of increased death benefits.

An anti-detriment payment is basically an adjustment to compensate for the reduction in lump sum death benefits caused by the introduction of the 15% tax on contribution and investment income from 1 July 1988 (previously all superannuation benefits were tax free). 

The 15% tax on contributions and investment income was intended to bring forward tax on superannuation benefits, rather than increase the overall tax.  However, the new 15% tax meant that lump sum death benefits would be unintentionally reduced.

Accordingly, the Government introduced the anti-detriment provision into the income tax law to effectively preserve the tax-free status of lump sum death benefits.  This is achieved by allowing the fund trustee to increase the death benefit paid to dependants, and then recoup the amount paid by way of tax deduction.

To be eligible a number of conditions must be satisfied:

• The fund has always been a complying superannuation fund (i.e., it has always been a regulated fund eligible for tax concessions);

• A fund member has died;

• The trustee makes a lump sum payment as a consequence of death from the accumulation or pension phase;

• The anti-detriment payment is made to a member's spouse, ex-spouse or child; and

• The Commissioner of Taxation is satisfied that the fund has passed on to the recipient the entire benefit that would accrue to the fund if a deduction was allowed.

The ATO is of the view trustees are only entitled to an anti-detriment deduction where a dependant is entitled to receive a lump sum benefit (not pension benefits) however, the deduction can be claimed in respect of lump sum payments made from the pension phase, such as pension commutations or residual capital value payments.  The same applies to commutations or RCV payments from reversionary pensions (i.e., pensions which continue to a second income recipient upon death). The deduction can be used by the fund to be offset against future contributions tax and earnings.

Care should be taken when a recontribution strategy is being undertaken to convert a member's superannuation interest to a fully tax exempt state as this is incompatible with
 an anti-detriment strategy
Source :
http://www.tranzacttotalsuper.com.au/Anti%20Detriment%20Provision.html

We were lucky enough thanks to our family solicitor to set up a unit trust in 1994 that our super fund controlled and purchased the buildings our businesses run from. For 15 years we had to put up with regular lectures from accountants and so called investment advisors about how we were not diversified in our super fund because we only had commercial property. When the GFC arrived the fallicy of being diversified in equities that for so long we had argued would occur arrived. Our properties were paid out and we are now busy building cash and gold bullion reserves from the rental incomes.
The internet is a wonderful resource for SMSF trustees to self educate

Went to a seminar last Wednesday with a friend and the group is lawyers/accountants  that specialize in property and advise on the most tax effective and asset protection angles. I am already set up so don't need their services;

http://www.lanteri.com.au/

Not strange at all Terry. Recently my nab Banker also gave me the names of two valuers they would accept. The question I would be asking Obiwann 22 is… before spending money on a valuer after only 6 months is.. Has Obiwann 22 had a quantity surveyor provide him with a depreciation report of all the noncash deductions he is entitled to claim so that his initial investment maximises the return on the initial investment ?

The push to access the equity in the initial investment can sometimes mean that you ignore ensuring the initial investment from day one starts to work toward CF+ve territory. How many CF +ve properties can you afford to hold? 

With regards to remaining positive I find having a library now of over 200 books on real estate and constantly re-reading the material, attending seminars on Trusts ,Tax and accounting has resulted in people saying to me its ok for you because your an expert. Definition of an expert? A big drip under pressure