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Tag: Reversion to mean

A good DIY deed

PORTFOLIO POINT: Four things you need to check to make sure more of your super keeps on breathing after you stop. The prime driver for people getting into self-managed super funds is control. In rough order, of the types of control that SMSF trustees want to exert, it’s usually control over investments, control over tax […]

How to start your DIY pension

PORTFOLIO POINT: It’s not quite as simple as “insert pension, press play”. So how do you “flick on” a pension in your SMSF? Pensions are, literally, what super is all about. The provision of retirement benefits is numero uno on the definition of superannuation’s sole purpose test. It’s the end game. But it’s an end […]

Two pensions better

PORTFOLIO POINT: Why take two pensions instead of one? Because the estate planning ramifications are potentially worth tens of thousands of dollars. Here’s why. It can often make sense to start a pension well before you’re ready to retire. The introduction of transition to retirement (TTR) pensions in 2005 meant many as young as 55 […]

Step lively on super pensions

PORTFOLIO POINT: Death taxes expanded! A new Tax Office position on super pensions has major repercussions for super and estate planning. It was bound to happen. I’d choose an important topic for a series of columns – super and estate planning – where the rules haven’t changed dramatically for a long time, and … bingo, […]

Bequeath your super tax-free

PORTFOLIO POINT: You’ve fallen off your perch. Who’s getting your super? Part two of my series on death benefit nominations. At the time of retirement, superannuation is likely to be the second largest asset of most people, suggest the statistics. The home is likely to be your biggest asset, unless you’ve developed a reasonable asset […]

Who’ll get your super when you fall off the perch?

PORTFOLIO POINT: Who will get the proceeds of your super when you fall off your perch? There are some big traps. Here’s what you need to know. The aim of super is roughly this: Get enough of a pot of assets to last you through a long life and happy retirement. And the ultimate? To […]

Unhedged hogs best position on rollercoaster ride

At a given point of any cycle, there’s bound to be a few markets with their heads in the stratosphere. Gold, for one, has never been this high. Chinese demand for raw materials means there might not be much left of WA inside a decade. The comeback market for 80s Australian rock stars is stubbornly […]

DIY funds grow, as do their challenges

Two of the worst years for investing in the nation’s history and legal headwinds for trustees have not dented Australians’ desire to take personal control of their super. At the end of June, the number of SMSFs in Australia jumped above 410,000 for the first time – and the take-up rate only slowed marginally for […]

How to spot a fake – it will revert to mean

It’s a sad fact that so many great things in life that seem so real turn out to be so fake. And it’s us poor punters who are usually last to catch on. Finally finding out only make us feel the right twit. TakeMilliVanilli. How was the record-buying public to know thatRobPilatusand Fab Morvan had […]

DIY to-do list for 2009

PORTFOLIO POINT: Super fund investors will happily ring in 2009. And they won’t be shedding a tear for the departure of 2008. In the worst kind of way, 2008 will have been a life-changing year for many super fund members and trustees. There are many investors who have lost so much money in the last […]