The Wild West of Self-Managed Super Fund Names
Stumbled across something yesterday that had me laughing out loud at my desk – and trust me, that’s not easy to do when you’re knee-deep in deployment scripts. Turns out the world of Self-Managed Super Fund names is an absolute goldmine of Australian humour and creativity.
Someone pointed out that all SMSF names are publicly searchable through the superfundlookup website, and naturally, people have been having a field day with their fund names. We’re talking about serious retirement savings here, but apparently that doesn’t stop Aussies from injecting a bit of personality into what’s traditionally one of the most boring aspects of financial planning.
The gems people have discovered are brilliant. There’s “Super Fun Super Fund” (which apparently multiple people know the owner of – small world indeed), “Kids Get Nothing” (in all caps, no less – someone’s clearly got strong feelings about their inheritance plans), and my personal favourite, “Definitely Not Tax Evasion Super Fund.” Though I suspect the ATO might not share my appreciation for that particular bit of cheeky naming.
What really struck me about this whole discovery is how it perfectly captures the Australian spirit of finding humour in the mundane. Here we are, dealing with one of the most important financial decisions of our lives – how we’re going to fund our retirement – and people are naming their funds after AC/DC songs (“Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” is apparently still available) or making dark jokes about working until death.
The IT professional in me appreciates that this is all happening because someone was systematically feeding keywords like “avoidance,” “minimisation,” and “evasion” into a government search function, looking for tax shenanigans and instead finding pineapples and other random fund names. There’s something beautifully Australian about using a government database for entertainment purposes.
But beyond the laughs, there’s something deeper here that resonates with my slightly cynical view of our financial system. The fact that people are naming their retirement funds “Work Till I Die” (which, poignantly, shows as “Cancelled” – RIP indeed) speaks to a real anxiety about retirement affordability in this country. When housing prices in Melbourne have gone completely bonkers and wage growth has been sluggish, maybe dark humour about our financial futures is just a coping mechanism.
The contrast between the creative names and the boring reality is telling too. Most funds apparently just go with the standard “M+R Trust” formula or similarly mundane business names. The people choosing funny names are probably the same ones who’ve taken the time to actually understand what they’re doing with their super, rather than just letting it sit in a default fund.
There’s also something refreshingly democratic about the whole thing. Unlike so many other aspects of wealth management that feel exclusionary and stuffy, SMSF names are this weird little corner where personality can shine through. Whether you’re naming your fund after your cats (and making them beneficiaries – respect) or making pointed statements about your kids’ inheritance prospects, it’s a rare moment where bureaucracy meets creativity.
The fact that fund names don’t have to be unique opens up even more possibilities. We could theoretically have hundreds of “Super Fun Super Funds” scattered across the country, each one a little act of rebellion against the dreary world of financial planning.
Maybe I’m reading too much into what’s essentially just people being silly with government forms, but there’s something hopeful about finding joy and humour in the process of planning for our financial futures. Lord knows we need it, especially when you look at the state of retirement planning in this country.
Now I’m genuinely wondering what I’d call my SMSF if I ever set one up. Something that captures both my love of bargain shopping and my perpetual worry about AI taking over the world, perhaps. “Skynet Bargain Retirement Fund” has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?