A standard account based pension can offer members the opportunity to take commutations – a lump sum now in exchange for lower income stream payments in the future. Why do we care whether it’s a partial commutation or a full commutation?

Almost all pension members will occasionally draw more than the minimum pension amount in a given year. If so, it is critical to think carefully about how those extra payments should be treated and documented before taking the payment.

We often hear that clients who take more than the minimum required from their pension accounts each year should treat the extra amount as a commutation rather than a pension payment. But when does this really make sense?

Like Meg Heffron, I was torn when thinking about this year’s Federal Budget. Was I hoping for no changes to super to provide some stability for our clients or was I hoping for a few changes to get my teeth into. And the result was ….

One side effect of the current ECPI regime is that a fund's tax exemption on investment income might be calculated using the segregated method for some periods of the year but the actuarial percentage method at other times.

We have seen cases where retirees have lost access to their Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) or seen a reduction in their Age Pension because they lost their account-based pension (ABP) grandfathering by rolling over or restarting the pension.

Once upon a time, there lived many retirees that rolled over their superannuation savings to commence what was known as a “complying income stream”.

TRIS's have been excluded from the actuarial % calculation since 1 July 2017. While they are included once the member turns 65 or retires, the process is not automatic. Without care, the TRIS will accidentally continue to be ignored.

In our article “Why isn’t my actuarial % as high as I thought it would be?” we highlighted a number of scenarios where an actuarial certificate may appear to give an odd result.

This has become a common question since pensions and exempt current pension income (ECPI) got more complicated from 1 July 2017. In theory, we should also be asked why the actuarial % looks too high. Funnily enough we don’t get many of those!

If you’ve ever doubted the merits of having an SMSF or the value of good advice, then look no further than the recent Administrative Appeals Tribunal case between a superannuation fund member (David Reiter) and the Department of Social Services.

So your client has decided to wind up their SMSF? It’s vital for all involved to be aware of the potential traps in the windup process to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity.