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Tag: super pensions

Super: What the Coalition will do

PORTFOLIO POINT: The coalition’s plans for super will require adjustments to your contributions strategy. Plus, is the new super pensions tax dead? If anyone was in any doubt that superannuation is a political football, then Thursday last week should have ended that. The Coalition’s Budget-in-reply confirmed that no matter how much “fairer” the Government might […]

A super time to split

PORTFOLIO POINT: Don’t take the chance this new legislation will fail to pass. You need to start splitting super contributions now. There has been a relatively small band of superannuation experts who, in recent years, have continued to push heavily a very unfashionable strategy. The strategy concerned spouse super splitting. It was a strategy that […]

Invest or die, it beats the pension

“Invest or Die!” was the alarming title of a finance book by a mate, John Beveridge, a few years back. I was expecting cold hard facts showing that “if you don’t invest, you’ll die”. Good book, but that’s not what it was about. However, it is true that wealthier people are healthier people. While the […]

Raising the preservation bar

PORTFOLIO POINT: The pressure is on to lift superannuation’s “preservation age” closer to age pension eligibility. We know superannuation is about investing for the long term. There’s an accumulation phase of up to 45 years. That’s about getting enough money into it and then managing it as well as possible so that it’s enough to […]

Transition to more super

PORTFOLIO POINT: Ramping up your non-concessional contributions before starting the pension can aid transition-to-retirement plans. There’s little doubt that transition to retirement strategies have been, well, neutered, to a large extent, in recent years. If you were aged 55-59 and all of your super was taxable component (that is, predominantly concessional contributions), then the major […]

The six big questions on superannuation

PORTFOLIO POINT: Yikes! The questions overflowed at last week’s bumper super webinar. Here’s some answers to the top six topics on your collective minds. Wow, it was an awesome response to the super webinar we held jointly with Business Spectator last week. James Kirby quizzed Bernie Ripoll and myself for an hour about the latest […]

Picking a pension winner

PORTFOLIO POINT: Maximising income streams in retirement can involve financial magic, particularly where Centrelink is concerned Super pension income is tax-effective income. We all know that. It’s just a case of whether it’s tax-free, or tax-advantaged. If you’re over age 60, the income comes to you tax-free. If you’re under age 60, then a super […]

Adviser report scary

PORTFOLIO POINT: Want financial advice on retirement, pensions or Centrelink entitlements? Read this before you make your first phone call. You wouldn’t have believed some of the squealing that followed the release of the latest adviser shadow shopping report. Responses from advisers included gems such as “staggered with the arrogance of ASIC” and “why not […]

Countdown to 30 June

PORTFOLIO POINT: The countdown to 30 June has started. Here’s your SMSF preparation checklist to make the most of this year. While superannuation isn’t a race, there are aspects of it that take on great urgency at times. And, for those who run their own SMSF, that’s especially true. Leaving everything to the last minute […]

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 […]