Posts

Is Transition to Retirement Still Viable?

Superannuation law was amended in 2005 to allow people to access their super from preservation age, currently 55, but progressively increasing to 60, without having to retire. It became affectionately known as ‘transition to retirement’ but it actually has nothing to do with retiring.

Once a person reaches their preservation age, they are able to access their super even though they might continue to work on a part-time or even a full-time basis.

There are some restrictions that apply, including:

1. Superannuation can only be accessed as an income stream or pension. That is, the amount of super being drawn cannot be paid out as a lump sum, however the annual income may be paid as a single annual instalment. The investment product that pays the pension is often referred to as a transition to retirement pension (TTR), or transition to retirement income stream (TRIS).

2. The income that may be drawn each year is based on the TRIS account balance. The minimum income that can be drawn is 4% of the account balance, while the maximum is 10% of the account balance.

3. During the life of a TRIS, lump sums cannot be withdrawn from the account, apart from the annualised annual income payment.

In the past, one of the attractions of a TRIS was that the investment earnings achieved by the super fund on the investments supporting the TRIS were exempt from tax at the super fund level. Because the super fund did not have to pay tax, this translated to a higher investment return for the investor.

Unfortunately, this concession was withdrawn for TRISs from 1 July 2017. They are now taxed on the same basis as a superannuation accumulation account. That is, fund earnings are taxed at a rate of 15%, with a 331/3% discount available for capital gains.

Once a person reaches the age of 60, the income they personally receive from their TRIS is tax free in their hands, even though their super fund is still paying tax on the underlying investment earnings.

One of the very popular strategies adopted in the past was for people to commence drawing income from their TRIS and simply enter into a salary sacrifice arrangement with their employer. It was a highly tax advantaged strategy, particularly for high income earners when the superannuation contribution limits were much higher than they are today.

However, not all is lost.

Even though a TRIS does not offer the same tax advantages as it did in the past, they may still play an important part in personal financial planning.

Drawing income from TRIS, particularly if age over 60, may still provide some tax advantages when coupled with a salary sacrifice arrangement or making personal tax-deductible contributions. The general concept of transition to retirement is still relevant where an individual needs to supplement their existing income. This may occur when unexpected expenses arise, a job is lost, or a person chooses to reduce their working hours in order to ‘transition into retirement’ – the original intention for introducing transition to retirement.

Of course, transition to retirement has a downside, the earlier we start drawing down on our super, the greater the risk that we will outlive it.

 

Source: Peter Kelly | Centrepoint Alliance

Is it time to apply for the aged pension? Pt. 2

We posted Part 1 of this topic on 25th October, which looked at the complexities and frustration of the application process.

The question has been asked regarding when should a person look at whether they would qualify for an age pension?

For many people, applying for the age pension is not something they think about until they are close to the qualifying age.

I believe that rather than waiting 13 weeks before you reach the necessary age, you should be looking at your situation five years before your qualifying age.

The qualifying age, depends on your date of birth and can vary between 65 and 67. As an example, a person born on 20 August 1956, would qualify at the age of 66 and a half. Those born after 1 January 1957, will need to wait until they turn 67.

So, for all those people who turn 62 after 1 January 2019, next year is the year you should review your circumstances and determine whether you may qualify for an age pension.

Why five years you may ask? For those people who see the age pension as a very important component of their retirement income, five years is an extremely important period.

As an example, consider the following situation;
The husband is turning 62 and his wife is 60. They own their own home, a couple of cars, have $85,000 in bank accounts and term deposits. Due to of a lifetime of work, they currently have a total of $650,000 in superannuation. Over the next five years through the strategy of salary sacrifice and investment growth, their super is expected to grow to around $800,000.

Their assets assessed for age pension purposes in five years could be close to $900,000, including their cars household contents and cash. Based on today’s upper asset threshold for a home-owner couple, which is $848,000, they would not qualify for an age pension. However, given the annual adjustment in the age pension and the thresholds at the age of 67 he may qualify for a small pension.

Of course, this all sounds very reasonable and based on their financial assets they should be able to achieve the comfortable lifestyle that they hope for when he retires at the age of 67.

The missing factors in this scenario are their children!

Their children are adults, they are married, have children of their own, but are struggling financially.

The couple have promised that when they retire, they will help them out by gifting them $100,000 each, three children a total of $300,000.

The downside to this plan is that in five years when they gift $300,000 to their children, and the husband applies for his age pension, Centrelink will maintain a gift of $290,000 for five years as an asset and deem income on this $290,000 when assessing his entitlement to an age pension.

This process will also affect her age pension entitlement when she applies two years later, on turning 67.

As this couple had not reviewed their situation in respect of their plans to gift money to their children, or the age pension legislation, they will find themselves in a less than comfortable position as their age pension entitlement is significantly less than what they had factored into their budget.

It is extremely difficult to ask for the money back once you have gifted the funds to children.

Believe it or not this situation occurs on a regular basis. The number of people who gift money to their children, for very good reasons, and then expect their age pension to increase to compensate for the funds that they have gifted, is a lot more common than we think.

Now, I am not saying that what this couple intends to do is wrong. What I am saying is that they need to review their position and make some decisions now.

If they do not have the funds to gift to their children at this moment and they still plan on giving $300,000 to the children in five years when they retire, they are at least aware of the consequences and are able to make plans.

Always remember to talk to someone and for the purposes of any age pension entitlement, do not leave it until just before reaching age pension age. If you do plan on gifting money to your children, make sure you do so five years before you turn age pension age, because, the deprivation rules don’t apply to the money or things you have given away more than five years previously.

 

Source: Mark Teale | Centrepoint Alliance

How expensive is retirement?

When talking about the costs of living in retirement, we refer to the figures published by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, known as the ASFA Retirement Standard. The latest figures for the June 2018 quarter have just been released. They show a small increase in the overall costs of living in both the ‘modest’ and ‘comfortable’ lifestyles for retirees.

The budgets published assume that a retiree owns their own home and is otherwise free of all debts, including car loans, credit, and store card debts.

The figures provided by ASFA are a guide.

How do the latest figures stack up? I have included the full rate of age pension for a comparison.

 

The figures shown are for a full year.

Notwithstanding health and aged care costs, as people age, their living costs tend to reduce. ASFA estimates that for a single person, or couples, their living costs will reduce by around $2,000 per year, or $4,000 for a couple living a comfortable lifestyle, from around the age of 85.

For those of us approaching retirement, the big question is: ‘how much money do I need to support my preferred lifestyle?’

ASFA has estimated the amount of money that you will need to have available to fund the retirement lifestyles.

For those living a modest lifestyle, and assuming they don’t have significant investments and other assets, will generally qualify for the full rate of age pension. That being the case, both a single person and a couple will only need around $70,000 of investable funds to make up the shortfall over the age pension.

Anyone aspiring to live a comfortable lifestyle is going to need more.

Whether savings are held in superannuation, or invested outside super, a much larger sum will be required to support the lifestyle. As savings increase, the rate of age pension reduces due to the impact of the assets test.

A single person will need around $545,000 of investable funds, and a couple will need $640,000 between them if seeking a comfortable retirement lifestyle. If a couple has $640,000 in super and their other assessable assets were relatively modest, they would still receive around $12,750 of age pension between them. They would, therefore, be drawing down approximately $47,850 from their super each year to support a comfortable lifestyle.

However, a single pensioner with $545,000 in super will not qualify for any age pension. Therefore, they will be relying on their own resources to provide for their retirement income.

Living in retirement is all about choices.

These choices will often be influenced by the decisions we make during our working life. Whether we choose to save and put more money in super or spend everything we earn on our journey towards retirement, will dictate what our retirement will look like. Sadly, many people find that once they retire, there simply isn’t enough money to allow them to live the lifestyle they have always dreamed of.

 

 

Source:  Peter Kelly | Centrepoint Alliance

Compound Interest – the most powerful force in the universe!

When saving for a long-term goal, such as retirement, is it better to save small amounts for a long time, perhaps saving when we cannot afford to, or waiting until later in life and putting larger amounts aside when it is more affordable?

We look at both sides of the debate and put some simple figures together.

Let’s put some ground rules in place:

  • The savings are non-concessional (i.e. after-tax) contributions made to a superannuation fund.
  • The rate of return earned is a net return (i.e. after the deduction of all fees, taxes, and charges).
  • All projections are expressed in 2018 dollars. However, there will be inflation. This can be managed by increasing the amounts saved in line with inflation.

Option 1 – Saving $100 per week for 40 years, earning 5% per annum.

We will start saving $100 per week, from age 25 through to age 65. We earn a conservative 5% per annum on our savings.

According to the ASIC’s Moneysmart Calculator, we would accumulate a total of $661,275 over a 40-year period.

The actual savings contributed, amounts to $208,000 and the earnings component is more than double at $453,275.

Option 2 – Saving $200 per week for 20 years, at 5% per annum.

In this option, we save $200 per week, but don’t start until age 45, also saving through to age 65, and earning 5% per annum.

The amount saved will also be $208,000, however by starting later, the earnings are only $148,229, making a total of $356,229 after 20 years.

To achieve the same outcome as Option 1, we would need to save $371 per week from age 45 for 20 years.

 Option 3 – Saving $100 per week for 40 years, earning 10% per annum.

The total amount saved is still $208,000, however, the total amount saved has jumped to a massive $2,740,434.

Option 4 – Saving $200 per week for 20 years, at 10% per annum.

Sadly, the accumulated savings after 20 years, even at 10% per annum, is a rather paltry $658,120.

So, the jury is in……

Saving a smaller amount for a longer period certainly seems to win out.

 

 

Source:  Peter Kelly | Centrepoint Alliance

A comfortable retirement: what and how achievable is it?

According to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) numbers, released for the September 2017 quarter, a couple will need $60,457 per annum to fund a comfortable lifestyle in retirement, assuming they own their own home and have no debt and a single person would need $44,011 per year.

So how can the income required for a comfortable retirement be funded, and how much should be put aside each year prior to retirement to accumulate the funds required to fund a comfortable retirement?

Funding a comfortable retirement

ASFA calculates that $640,000 is sufficient to fund a comfortable retirement lifestyle. Their calculations assume a couple owns their own home and will receive Government age pension support when they retire.

It is assumed that $640,000 is held in a superannuation fund and used to commence an account-based pension. However if the funds were held outside super in joint names, there wouldn’t be any significant change in the outcome, as the couple are unlikely to pay any income tax on the portfolio returns. It is also assumed that the couple’s home contents and car are valued at $25,000.

The couple, both aged 67, would only draw what they need from their superannuation account-based pension to top up their age pension income to the required level for a comfortable retirement. The level of income needed, based on ASFA’s model, decreases from approximately $60,000 per year prior to age 85, to approximately $55,000 per year – this reflects a relatively less active lifestyle as age increases.

Although their age pension entitlement is just $12,000 (approx.) per annum in the first year, that entitlement grows over time as their assets reduce – the couple become entitled to the full age pension from age 91.

This analysis indicates that the income needed could be maintained until age 99, well beyond the life expectancy of a 67 year old female (age 87.3 years) or male (age 84.6 years). The couple’s account-based pension would run out by age 101.

This outcome is sensitive to the earnings rate assumption (6.7 per cent per annum). ASFA’s assumption of 7.0 per cent per annum increases the age to which the income level can be maintained by a year, to age 100.

Other sensitive assumptions include the amount of non-financial assets ($25,000) and financial assets, for example cash holdings ($nil). These assumptions may affect the couple’s age pension entitlement, hence the amount of pension payments that need to be drawn from the account-based pension. Note that financial assets may have a net positive impact due to the additional income produced.

Saving for a comfortable retirement

Taking ASFA’s numbers ($640,000 for a couple, $545,000 for singles) as appropriate funding targets, then a natural question is:

How much should be saved each year to reach the relevant funding target?

We are focusing on a single person reaching the $545,000 (in today’s dollars) funding goal by age 67, which is the Government age pension eligibility age for those born on or after 1 January 1957.

A key feature of retirement funding for Australian employees is the compulsory superannuation contributions employers are required to make on behalf of certain employees – the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) system.

The current SG rate is 9.5 per cent of an employee’s Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE). Generally, OTE relates to ordinary hours (excluding overtime), and includes commissions, shift loadings and certain allowances. The 9.5 per cent rate will increase by 0.5 per cent per annum from 2021 to 2025, ultimately to 12 per cent.

The Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE) for the October 2017 quarter was $1,567.90 or $81,755 per year. In our modelling we have used $80,000 per year. Employees with this amount of income will have SG contributions of 9.5 per cent ($7,600 per year, paid quarterly) paid by their employer to a superannuation fund. These contributions are generally taxed at 15 per cent, so $6,460 is available to be invested by the superannuation fund each year.

Table 1 below shows that a 30 year old with earnings of $80,000 per year may accrue $536,000 in superannuation between now and retirement at age 67 from their future SG contributions alone, assuming no breaks in their employment. This amount is only slightly short of the comfortable retirement target of $545,000.

Table 1: future SG contributions accrual to age 67

Current age Current Ordinary Time Earnings
$40,000 $80,000 $120,000
       
20 $419,000 $837,000 $1,256,000
30 $268,000 $536,000 $804,000
40 $159,000 $319,000 $478,000
50 $81,000 $163,000 $244,000
60 $25,000 $51,000 $76,000

 

Table 2 below shows the amount the same individual in Table 1 would need to contribute to superannuation on an after-tax basis (non-concessional contributions) to reach the funding target of $545,000, assuming they have nothing in super currently. The 30 year old individual considered above would need to contribute only $124 per annum

Table 2: After-tax super contributions per annum to reach retirement goal at age 67

Current age Current Ordinary Time Earnings
$40,000 $80,000 $120,000
       
20 $1,109
30 $3,773 $124
40 $8,723 $5,114 $1,495
50 $20,024 $16,506 $12,988
60 $64,940 $61,765 $58,587

These charts show that many Australians may be in a position to achieve a comfortable retirement, based on ASFA’s definition and assumptions. The Australian Superannuation Guarantee system is a significant part of achieving this outcome, which relies on the currently legislated increases in the SG rate to 12 per cent.

Before making any financial decisions you should seek personal financial advice from an Australian Financial Service licensee.

 

 

Source:  Macquarie