Financial Planning

In a low-interest, lower-return, more-volatile investment environment, investors have an even greater incentive to keep wealth-damaging behavioural traits or biases under control.

When starting retirement phase pension accounts, SMSF professionals and their clients should think carefully about how it might impact the amount of death benefit pension that their children will be able to receive, says a technical expert.

Despite the recent cut to official interest rates, an update in the ATO’s superannuation rates and thresholds indicates that the minimum interest rate for SMSF loans under the safe harbour terms will increase for the 2019–20 financial year.

When do we know for certain that we are on a path toward recession and that what we are experiencing is not simply a reversion to trend? How can investors prepare?

There’s a lot of talk about in how to close the super gap between men and women, with women often retiring with far less than men.

There’s a lot of talk about in how to close the super gap between men and women, with women often retiring with far less than men.

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With property markets taking a tumble in recent times, some SMSF clients may need to review the loan arrangements and guarantees they have, particularly where the loan-to-value ratio has significantly dropped, says an industry lawyer.

            The latest SMSF Benchmark Report from Class indicates that there is a continuing trend towards younger age groups setting up SMSFs, which follows similar findings from recent ATO statistics. In its latest SMSF Benchmark Report for the March quarter, SMSF software company Class analysed 26,100 funds comprising 46,943 members, … Read More

The ATO has updated its valuation guidelines in order to clarify when a reasonable estimate can be used for valuing pension assets when reporting to the ATO.

The ATO’s statistical overview of SMSFs for the 2016–17 financial year indicates that funds that were established that year had assets of just over $500,000 on average, a substantial increase from the previous year.

Have you written a personal financial register, listing your super and non-super investments, your other assets, your income and any debts?