Home / How super works / Super news / Super news for October 2021

Super news for October 2021

Draft retirement income covenant released

After releasing a position paper mid-July, the Federal Government has released draft legislation for the retirement income covenant – Treasury Laws Amendment (Measure for a later sitting) Bill 2021: Retirement income covenant.

Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy, Senator Jane Hume, said the draft legislation would codify the obligation for superannuation trustees to have a retirement income strategy that outlines how they plan to assist their members in retirement.

“The strategy must consider how the trustee will assist their members to balance maximising their retirement income, managing risks, and have some flexible access to savings,” Senator Hume said when releasing the draft legislation.

The government has also cleared up confusion around whether the covenant would include self-managed super funds (SMSFs) in the draft legislation by explicitly stating in its explanatory memorandum: “This covenant does not apply to trustees of self-managed superannuation funds”.

TWUSUPER calls off EISS merger

TWUSUPER has announced they will not be moving forward with a possible merger with EISS Super. The two industry funds announced they were in discussions in April this year.

A TWUSUPER spokesperson said “TWUSUPER’s motivation in entering merger discussions with EISS was the potential benefit members of both funds would achieve from greater scale. We also felt EISS members would benefit from TWUSUPER’s strong investment performance. Following extensive due diligence TWUSUPER will not proceed with a merger with EISS at this time. Any merger must be in members’ best interest. TWUSUPER is now pursuing other growth options.”

In August this year APRA announced that EISS Super was one of the 13 underperforming funds in it’s test of MySuper funds.

Financial planning industry continues to shrink

The number of financial planners in Australia is continuing to fall, with almost 9,000 financial planners, or 30%, leaving the industry since 2018.

About the author

Related topics,

IMPORTANT: All information on SuperGuide is general in nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether any information on SuperGuide is appropriate to you before acting on it. If SuperGuide refers to a financial product you should obtain the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or seek personal financial advice before making any investment decisions. Comments provided by readers that may include information relating to tax, superannuation or other rules cannot be relied upon as advice. SuperGuide does not verify the information provided within comments from readers. Learn more

© Copyright SuperGuide 2008-25. Copyright for this guide belongs to SuperGuide Pty Ltd, and cannot be reproduced without express and specific consent. Learn more

Leave a Reply