You don’t have to get advice when choosing super funds, or when considering making extra super contributions, or for any other financial matters. If you do want advice however, do some research on reputable advisers.Advisers deserve to be paid for providing advice, but you have to decide how you want them to be ... Read more
Superannuation strategies
Superannuation strategies can be any super-related action that can help an individual grow his or her benefit. Such action can include strategies that protect existing super benefits, minimise costs, help boost your super savings by making extra super contributions, or by actively selecting your super account’s selection options.
If you run an SMSF, then you may be considering SMSF-specific strategies in relation to administering your SMSF, or investing your super monies, or running an SMSF pension.
All Australians contemplating retirement, at some stage will be considering retirement strategies such as deciding on the right age to retire, working out how much money will be needed for a life in retirement, whether they will be eligible for the Age Pension, and deciding who gets their super savings after they leave this earth.
For more information on important superannuation strategies, refer to the links below:
- Housekeeping strategies (such as reporting your tax file number, choosing a super fund, checking fees, nominating beneficiaries)
- Contributions strategies (such as salary sacrificing, spouse contributions, non-concessional contributions, co-contributions, capital gains tax management)
- Investment strategies (such as choosing an investment option, asset allocation, shares that pay franked dividends
- Age-based strategies (such as making super contributions, accessing super, timing retirement)
- Retirement strategies (such as how much super is enough, lump sums, super pensions, Age Pension, work test)
- SuperGuide checklists
The following SuperGuide articles provide examples of superannuation strategies:
Set out below are all SuperGuide articles referring to Superannuation strategies.
Superannuation death benefits: Who receives super payments, and how much tax is paid?
On the death of a super fund member, a superannuation death benefit can be paid to the dependants of the fund member, or to the fund member’s estate.The term ‘dependant’ has two special meanings when referring to superannuation death benefits. A super fund can only directly pay a superannuation death benefit to a ... Read more
Age Pension changes: Government cuts benefits and takes from future generations
Introducing our guest contributor, Jim Bonham: Dr Jim Bonham is a retired scientist and manager. Although he is unaffected by the recent changes to the superannuation and Age Pension rules, as an SMSF trustee, he is deeply concerned about the ongoing instability for retirees and future retirees. In the article below, ... Read more
Super loophole still benefits politicians and senior public servants
Amid the confusion surrounding the $1.6 million transfer balance cap on super pensions, and the short timeframes available to comply with this change (which took effect from July 2017), a small but important loophole was missed by the super experts, and continues to be ignored by the superannuation lobby groups, and ... Read more
Why women must save more super, and why pollies should care
When we first launched SuperGuide nine years ago, I wrote an article explaining why tax-free super in retirement was a non-issue for most women. The reason for making this statement, and which unfortunately remains valid nine years later, was that many women, on average, have such low super account balances that the ... Read more
Case study: I’m 53. Is it too late to save for my retirement?
Note: This article is updated periodically with the latest lifestyle/income data and latest Age Pension rates. The most recent data was released in December 2017 (for lifestyle costs up to September 2017), and for Age Pension rates, from September 2017. This case study was last updated February 2018.Q: I am 53 ... Read more
Retirement planning: Choosing the right super strategies for your age
A superannuation fund is an investment vehicle, rather than an investment. Many fund members, journalists and even investment analysts are confused about this distinction. For example, asking whether property or super is the better investment is the wrong question. The right question to ask, is whether the tax savings ... Read more
Super opportunity: Catch-up concessional contributions from July 2018
Any Australian considering making super contributions since 1 July 2017 needs to be mindful that the annual concessional (before-tax) contributions cap is much lower than previous financial years. Since July 2017, the annual concessional contributions cap has dropped to $25,000, which is a lot lower than concessional ... Read more
Latest super changes: ATO Guidance Notes and Law Companion Guidelines
You have to worry about the complexity of super changes, when the Australian Taxation Office releases a suite of Law Companion Guidelines (LCGs), trying to explain many of the July 2017 changes, and several of these LCG documents exceed 100 pages a pop.The LCGs have been written with advisers and accountants in ... Read more
Superannuation death benefits and the $1.6 million transfer balance cap
We have received many questions from readers about how the new $1.6 million transfer balance cap will operate when a fund member dies, especially if the fund member has arranged for his or her spouse to receive a superannuation death benefit pension, including a reversionary pension. This article provides a brief ... Read more
Defined benefit pensions and the $1.6 million transfer balance cap
Every Australian entering retirement phase with superannuation benefits, now needs to monitor his or her very own retirement cap. Since 1 July 2017, the $1.6 million transfer balance cap represents the maximum amount that you can transfer to retirement phase to support a super pension. The transfer balance cap will be ... Read more
CGT relief and the $1.6 million transfer balance cap, and TRIPs
If you had more than $1.6 million of superannuation in retirement phase as at 1 July 2017, or you have, or in the process of reverting a transition-to-retirement pension back to accumulation phase then you should have already started considering your future tax circumstance, and making some serious decisions.Anyone ... Read more
