Superannuation Advice Australia Questions & Answers

Hi Kerrie,

It’s a great question and it’s something we deal with a lot. Before we can give accurate advice normally one of our licensed financial advisers would assess your current circumstances and get an understanding of your future goals and objectives. Without knowing your personal situation, it’s difficult to give you an accurate answer, but generally speaking, any super withdrawals or switching to Pension will likely impact Centrelink entitlements.

It’s a good idea to have your personal circumstances assessed by a professional adviser and/ or Centrelink staff prior to making any decisions. The Superguide website may be a useful resource for more information: https://www.superguide.com.au/smsfs/age-pension-is-super-benefit-counted-towards-centrelink-assets-test.

If you would like to discuss anything in more detail, please feel free to contact us directly.

Hi Kerrie,

It’s a great question and it’s something we deal with a lot. Before we can give accurate advice normally one of our licensed financial advisers would assess your current circumstances and get an understanding of your future goals and objectives. Without knowing your personal situation, it’s difficult to give you an accurate answer, but generally speaking, any super withdrawals or switching to Pension will likely impact Centrelink entitlements.

It’s a good idea to have your personal circumstances assessed by a professional adviser and/ or Centrelink staff prior to making any decisions. The Superguide website may be a useful resource for more information: https://www.superguide.com.au/smsfs/age-pension-is-super-benefit-counted-towards-centrelink-assets-test.

If you would like to discuss anything in more detail, please feel free to contact us directly.

A ‘non-binding nomination’ on your Superannuation account generally refers to an
“instruction” to the trustee on who you wish your Super to go to in the event of your
death. The ‘non-binding’ aspect simply informs the trustee of your wishes, but they
are not legally bound to act on those instructions. You can visit the MoneySmart
website for more information:

https://moneysmart.gov.au/glossary/non-binding-nomination

For more detailed information on estate planning and ‘binding’ nominations, please
feel free to contact us directly.

Hi Libby,

Thanks for your question. Generally, if you simply want to consolidate super and you’re comfortable doing it on your own, that’s a good option. Consolidating super is pretty straightforward, so we wouldn’t charge a fee to simply consolidate super. If your sister wants to contact us, we can show her how to do that for free.

We’re actually a licensed financial advisory firm, so we offer personalised financial advice, consolidating super would only be a small part of an overall strategy. Our main job is to ensure that clients are managing their super effectively, they are investing correctly and are on track to achieving their retirement goals. For many clients, they don’t know what the best super fund is or which one they should put their money into or how it should be invested to get them the best results without taking unnecessary risks.

Choosing the right fund and the right investment strategy is important. There’s no benefit consolidating into a poor-performing fund or one that's expensive or too risky for you. There's years where some super funds will actually lose money, while other super funds can make investment returns of over 20% in the same year. It’s a big difference, so it’s important before you consolidate that you choose the right options to suit your age, balance and requirements. That’s where we help.

You could ask your super fund for advice, but don’t be surprised if they tell you that they’re the best. You can speak to a financial adviser, but nearly half the Advisers in Australia are aligned to a super fund or a major bank, so it’s hard to know if their advice is unbiased. On the other hand, Superannuation Advice Australia is a licensed financial advisory firm but we are not aligned to any super fund or bank. We can give you advice based on what’s in your best interests, not theirs.

The easiest way to show you what we can do is to take advantage of our no-obligation review service. We can review your super and provide a full report outlining our recommendations and any fees payable and the potential benefits of our advice. There’s no obligation, so if you choose to go ahead with our advice, that’s great, but if not, there would be no cost. If you would like further information, please feel free to contact us.