Grandfathering urged on super policy

12 January 2016
| By Mike |
image
image
expand image

The Federal Government should grandfather some superannuation arrangements for those aged over 50 who have made investment decisions based on current policy arrangements.

That is the assessment of a roundtable of a senior superannuation executives conducted by Super Review with Towers Watson managing director, Andrew Boal suggesting that limited grandfathering provided a sensible way for the Government to significantly alter the current settings.

Boal suggested the grandfathering in the context of those likely to be currently seeking to make large contributions who he believed were most likely to be those aged over 50.

"So if that's the case, anyone who is under age 50 hasn't been yet affected by what has been proposed, so changing the rules for them probably isn't as big a deal," he said.

"If someone has been doing it for six or seven years and relying on a system, well let's let them get through unchanged."

Boal suggested that such an approach could also support the concept of retirement incomes adequacy in circumstances where the superannuation guarantee had only moved to nine per cent 13 years' ago.

"...so there's still a generation of people who haven't had a full working life of the SG [superannuation guarantee] contributions. So let's give them a chance to catch up and get to a certain point before we change the rules," he said.

Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) chief policy officer, Glen McCrea said he believed the implementation of policy change would be a balancing act but that, in the end, the ultimate goal needed to be maintaining confidence in the system.

He said that meant looking for long-term solutions rather than short term political fixes.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest developments in Super Review! Anytime, Anywhere!

Grant Banner

From my perspective, 40- 50% of people are likely going to be deeply unhappy about how long they actually live. ...

11 months ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

11 months 1 week ago
Anthony Asher

No doubt true, but most of it is still because over 45’s have been upgrading their houses with 30 year mortgages. Money ...

11 months 1 week ago

Jim Chalmers has defended changes to the Future Fund’s mandate, referring to himself as a “big supporter” of the sovereign wealth fund, amid fierce opposition from the Co...

1 day 23 hours ago

Demand from institutional investors was the main driver of growth in Australia’s responsible investment (RI) market in 2023, as the industry continued to gain momentum....

1 day 23 hours ago

In a new review of the country’s largest fund, a research house says it’s well placed to deliver attractive returns despite challenges....

2 days ago