Incoming govt needs to give confidence in super

The incoming government needs to give clarity around superannuation for consumers to give confidence in the system and the initiatives to help closer the gender gap in super are just a start.

This was the opinion of the Association of Financial Adviser's (AFA's) national president, Deborah Kent, who said problems advisers faced were that clients were concerned about putting money into super as the Government had a tendency to change the rules all the time.

"Whichever government gets in needs to carefully look at whether the super budget proposals actually benefit Australians in retirement, especially in the reduction in caps, the amount of non-concessional contributions — they're the two big ones that really need to be addressed," she said.

"Are they actually going to benefit the consumers out there in getting the best out of their retirement? Putting more restrictions on how people can put money into super doesn't give them the incentive to use it."

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Kent said consumers were getting confused about super every time there was a change and did not want to use it.

"I as an adviser get it all the time with people saying ‘why should I use it when the government keeps changing all the rules?'. It's a standard line I've heard for years and I think it's very important for any government to get some confidence in the system and clarity around it," she said.

While Kent said there were a couple of initiatives proposed in the Budget that would help women in retirement, there was still a lot more work to be done.

"These initiatives are good but they won't solve the problem of the gap between women and men," Kent said.

"The initiatives are a start but the conversation needs to continue. I think government still need to look at where they can add value for women so that we don't have this gap in retirement."