In a recent article (here) my colleague Annie Dawson provided her top 5 tips when it comes to commuting death benefit pensions. But what are the tips and traps to watch right at the start – when the pensioner first dies?

One of the great times to have an SMSF is once pensions start. The flexibility they offer allows members to implement great tax planning decisions without any of the hassle or fuss of a large fund. But some thinking in advance is still invaluable.

There are not only special rules about who can receive a death benefit pension but there are also special rules around taking lump sums (partial commutation) or stopping these types of pensions altogether (full commutation). Here are our top 5 tips.

With only 8 sitting days before the Federal Budget is due to be handed down on 29 March 2022 and an election to be called, there are a number of outstanding super measures to be dealt with.

Just before Christmas, there was another small step towards resolution for those with “legacy pensions” with some new draft legislation being released for comment.

Partially commuting a pension can be a very useful strategy for SMSF trustees, but there’s plenty to consider first.

I recently talked to a client about taking a large benefit from their SMSF. Believe it or not, there’s a lot to consider in working out how to structure the payment. Just taking a very large pension amount is often the worst possible thing to do.

Thinking of stopping your income stream or combining it with another? Don’t do either without reading this.

It’s not just about setting up an income stream but also making sure you’ve taken care of tax, splitting super with a spouse, and what happens after you die.

Starting pensions is the main game in an SMSF but they are often also commuted (stopped). The driver might be a desire to move to another superannuation fund, combine the pension with new contributions or just stop getting so much income from super.

Pensions can run for many years but that doesn’t always mean that every payment drawn from a pension account is a pension payment. Sometimes lump sums (partial commutations) can be invaluable but it pays to know the rules. These are our top 5 tips.

Since 1 July 2017, $1.6m has been a magic number in superannuation for all sorts of purposes, most notably the general transfer balance cap. Now that this has increased to $1.7m from 1 July 2021, what happens to other rules like segregation?