well good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this afternoon's presentation hosted by Russell Investments my name is Martin Kennedy I'm the head of education and I'm presenting to you today from the Russell Investments office here in Melbourne I hope wherever you're joining me from it's well it's probably uh hopefully a little bit warmer than it is here in in very wintry Melbourne now this afternoon's presentation is titled funding your retirement and in this afternoon's presentation we've got quite a bit of information to go through I do need to highlight that this afternoon's presentation is being recorded and in the coming days you will be sent a copy of the recording along with a copy of the slides we go through plus some other information now as you've joined today's uh session you might notice that you are automatically muted helps us cut down on background noise and the like I will give you the opportunity throughout the presentation to take yourself off mute and verbally ask a question alternatively you should see your questions tab there and please feel free at any point during the presentation to type your question into the questions tab I'll acknowledge them and of course do my very best to answer them and while it's easy in online presentations and we're all very used to meeting online these days to multitask and do other things I would greatly appreciate your engagement throughout our time together and in fact within the presentation I am going to seek your opinion at one point there there'll be a pop-up poll where I'll ask you your thoughts and opinions on retiring we'll get to that in a little while um so what are we actually going to talk about today well first of all we're going to talk about what's happening in investment markets this year particularly again we've seen extreme volatility in financial markets and I want to provide a little bit of an update on what's happening with markets as well as how this might affect our upcoming and planned retirement I'll take you through when you can access your superannuation what we might be thinking about retirement there are a lot of unknowns around what actually happens when we get there I'll talk around what actually happens and what your options are when you do retire and finally I'll talk about the government's role in your retirement and what sort of support we can expect from the government it's important to remember that all the information in today's presentation is General Financial information only that means it hasn't taken into account your personal circumstances please consider it in light of your circumstances before acting on any of the information and if you do require personal financial advice or guidance it is available by calling the fund on 1-800-5567 again I'll come back and address that a little bit later now the first thing I'd like to talk about of course is investment markets because this year we have again seen extreme volatility in investment markets some of us might have been thinking well I was planning on retiring but now I can't afford to retire because I've seen my money go backwards by 5 10 maybe up to 20 percent and so the first thing I would like to address when talking about investment markets is to actually talk about risk and return this is a simple risk and return graph and it very simply says with any investment the higher the expected level of risk or volatility I'm prepared to accept the higher the expected long-term return I can also expect so at one end of the scale we've got cash money in the bank the risk is very low the long-term return is also very very low at the other end of the scale we've got shares we know they're volatile they go up and they go down but over a longer period of time we expect a much greater return from them now most of us are pretty good at any point in time at working out exactly how we feel about risk in return this is how much risk I'm prepared to take with my investment to earn x amount of return but then something will affect our decision at any given time and what will affect our decision our emotions and as investors our emotions tend to lead us astray they actually tell us to do the exact wrong thing at things at wrong time when investment markets are good and returns are positive we feel excitement or thrill maybe even Euphoria about how well our investments are performing and because they're performing so well we tend to think well now I'm going to invest more money and this tends to be where we want to invest at the time of maximum Financial Risk why we're feeling good about them but once they've already gone up it's yesterday's news what then happens markets drop crash correct whatever you'd like to call it maybe we feel anxiety fear Panic even despondency when markets Get Low we think well there's no way I'd be putting more money into this investment now because it's performed so poorly why would I be putting more money in now of course that's the time of Maximum Financial opportunity now those two slides the two slides we've looked at is effectively all we really need to know about investing understand risk and return and be aware of your own emotions they will tell you to do the wrong thing of course there are ways to smooth this out or settle some of these and the first way to do that is to diversify don't put all your eggs into one basket diversification can be done a number of ways and one of the key ways to do it is by investing across different asset classes here when we look at the performance of different asset classes over a long period of time we can see that really does the same investment class perform really well year after year after year working backwards sometimes it will be International shares sometimes we'll need to hedge it against the Australian dollar sometimes it will be bonds sometimes it will be property the variation and while some of them are top Sometimes some of them will be bottom sometimes in fact the only way to try and smooth this a little bit is to even diversify across different asset classes so across the middle there the black squares are a multi-asset fund made up of a little bit of all the different asset classes there's some International shares there's some property there's some bonds there's some cash and by doing that will smooth your return somewhat very simply rather than putting all your eggs in one basket it means whatever's performing well or you're going to have some of that of course the other thing is whatever's performing not so well you're likely to also have some of that very simply the message is this when it comes to investing and not just within super or pension but within anything don't expect your money to behave in a way that it is not designed to behave money has quite predictable Behavior but what we can't do or anyone can do is predict when some of these things are going to happen what we're actually looking at here is the value of a thousand dollars invested back on the 31st of December 1979 and what that thousand dollars would have been worth invested in different asset classes up until the end of October this year now the first thing to realize is that our thousand dollars today must be worth four thousand five hundred and eighty two dollars to have kept pace with inflation if it's not you've lost if you want a guaranteed return on your money you want to make sure the value of your investment can never decrease well you can do that invest in cash it's just cruised on up never gone down in value but over a long period of time it's the worst performed asset class at the other end of the scale the growth asset classes Aussie shares International shares property are all the best performed asset classes but as we can see they're volatile they're up and they're down but again over a long period of time we expect a much greater return from and the decision that we all need to make when it comes to investing and when it comes to investing our retirement savings is what do you want your money to do you want the bigger returns but keeping in mind it's going to be an up and down Journey or do you want if you like a guaranteed return but that guarantee comes at a price and that price is a higher return all right I think that's enough for the moment on the investing piece again it's emotional we all would love to earn a great return year after year after year it is possible it comes with volatility now when it then comes to um planning for retirement it can be challenging we want a super high account balance it's important to remember that planning your retirement has come about from building your super steadily for most of your working life that then gets to the point where it has its real purpose to serve and the purpose of super is for you to be able to pay yourself an income in retirement to help you live the lifestyle that you want of course there are rules around when we can access our superannuation retirement savings to in order to access your superannuation you must meet a condition of release listed here are some conditions of release either reach age 65. cease employment after the age of 60 or reach your preservation age cease employment and intend never to be in a gainfully employed again of course there are some health and financial ones down the bottom there you don't need to reach all of these you just need to reach one of them cease employment after age 60 you can retire and have access to your super I've mentioned preservation age there what is Preservation age well in simple terms preservation age is the age that you are able to retire and access your retirement savings first of all for everyone on the line here your preservation age for everyone is at least age 60. so if like me you were born after the 30th of June 19 1964 cannot retire and access my superannuation savings until at least the age of 60. if you were born a little early you may be able to access your superannuation and retirement savings a little earlier so when somebody asks when can you retire you can retire at your preservation age retirement age for everyone is age 60 maybe a little earlier for some of you now of course depending on when and how you choose to withdraw your super can determine any tax that you pay on your money coming out of super and again I'm going to start and make this really easy once you are age 60 whether you withdraw your retirement savings as a lump sum or as an income stream it is totally tax-free if you are at your preservation age but not yet age 60 you could pay some tax depending on whether you withdraw it as a lump sum or as an income stream I guess the simple message there if possible don't retire until after the age of 60 to avoid paying any extra tax that you would need to pay of course there are options there and Russell Investments can support you and provide in individual information on what tax might be payable if you are considering retiring before age 60. now of course we are going to spend a bit of time talking about options and what it looks like when you retire but now I would like to hear from you so coming up on the screen momentarily oops there's a I just need to get rid of that sorry coming up on the screen momentarily will be a pop-up poll and the question here reads when it comes up there it is do you now know how you are going to fund your life after work are you going to move your superannuation to another investment just take what you need from Super hadn't really thought about it or hoping you can guide me I'll give you a moment I'll turn my camera off for a moment I'll give you a moment just to answer that and then I'll share the results with you also gives me a chance to have a sip of water thank you to everyone who's sharing their thoughts I can see we've got a good uh a wide variety of results coming in and thank you to all I'll just give you another 10 seconds or so to uh to share them all good wide range of responses all right last chance for anyone to share their thoughts all right thank you to everyone who has shared their thoughts let me close the poll off now just takes a moment and I will share the results for you with you here they are now so the first thing you'll know there's a good wide range of responses here first of all nine percent of people move superannuation to another in investment bought a little over 40 take just what you need from Super Eight percent hadn't thought about it and 41 hoping you can guide me well to those 41 I'm hoping I can too um into it first thing that jumps into my mind there I go 41 and 9 is 50 41 and 8 is 99. we're there's just obviously a little bit of rounding there um again thank you to everyone who who shared their results they're really interesting results and I think in in all of those cases um that I see that there are a broad range of options so what I would like to do now is talk about the options of what actually happens when you retire and where to put your money and the first part of good news here is no matter what your initial thoughts or plans are they are all available to you you have all the options available and the great thing about superannuation is you have all the ability to take it as a lump sum you can do with that money whatever you please if you want to pop it into the bank if you want to pop it into another investment if you're hoping just to take bits and pieces from your superannuation all those are available to you but what we really need to be doing is creating that income and so one of the uh options to create that income is to start an allocated pension an allocated pension has benefits such as flexible payment options the ability to pay yourself an income uh in retirement and it's tax and Social Security favorable just looking at my image there I need to fix that up a little bit and so I would like to spend a little bit of time talking to you about the the benefits of using an allocated pension so the first question here is well how does an allocated pension work very simply at retirement once you have reached your preservation age or age 60 you have the ability to move your money from a superannuation account to a pension account now you can make the account to a pension account the pension account is designed for you to pay yourself a regular income back from that account rather than a super account which is designed to receive contributions from your employer from yourself a pension account is designed to pay the money back to you in installments importantly it's your money and you stay in control now there are lots of benefits within a pension account and the first one being it is really tax effective now I'm going to go into some of these in a little bit more detail but whether you're between 55 and 59 or if you are already over age 60 over age 60 on withdrawal there is no tax payable on the benefits as they come out remember between age 55 and 59 so ate your preservation age you will pay tax on the withdrawals so again simply don't start one until you're over age 60 there will be zero tax on the withdrawals the Only Rule regarding an allocated pension is that you must withdraw annually four percent of your opening or one July account balance each year so very simply again you transferred that amount of money from your superannuation account to a pension account no differently check the savings account on your banking whatever you transfer you must withdraw four percent of your account balance back that year for the sake of an easy number you transfer a hundred thousand dollars over you must withdraw all percent four thousand dollars for the year that's the only rule now within the pension account your money is still invested it still earns interest or growth and in a pension account the investment earnings are totally tax-free in a superannuation account the investment earnings are taxed within the fund at the superannuation rate of 15 cents in the dollar very simply and for round numbers if the actual investment earned 10 within superannuation we would declare it to you as an 8.5 return because we declare a net return to you within an allocated pension if the money actually earned 10 we would declare a 10 return to you it is totally tax-free there are lots of other benefits within an allocated pension first of all from a fee's perspective there are lots of different ways to to control your fees and make sure they are right for you a bit like internet banking it's easy to use and like your superannuation account you can transact you can change the way it's invested you can change your payments amount as long as you meet that minimum four percent and of course there's lots of advice and help available to you when you want and I'm going to talk about advice and support a little bit later on there are a couple of other uses for a um for a pension and that is to create an income from your super while you are still working you will generally know these as a transition to retirement pension of course if you set up a transition to retirement pension it then moves perfectly and seamlessly once you do permanently retire to be able to create that income either way you still get to choose how your money is invested and you still earn those investment returns within that pension framework rather than superannuation or just withdrawing your money from Super now I've spoken a couple of times already about a transition to retirement pension chances are you might have already heard about a transition to retirement pension let me take you in a little bit more detail into a transition to retirement pension what they are and how they work first of all there are three main different ways to use a transition to retirement pension we call these the lifestyle booster where this is probably what they were originally designed to do to give you access to your retirement savings while still working to be able to make that lifestyle Choice rather than working five days a week I'm going down to three days a week of course I've still got Financial costs I need to to make so I'm going to withdraw and access some of my superannuation back to offset and fund my lifestyle if you like now it didn't take long then after they came out for the financial boffins to say well there's lots of different ways to use these including what we call the Super Booster Super Booster is to move your money through both the superannuation the pension system salary sacrifice back into Super and because of the tax effective nature boost your superannuation savings I'm going to show you that one in a little bit more detail shortly because it is a very popular way to use them the last one of course is the income booster just while still working to access some of your superannuation savings and draw that money back whether it be to um clear some debts before you're retiring whether that be to help kids buy their first home whatever it might be there is lots of ways to use a transition to retirement pension to suit your lifestyle the big one and the most popular one as I spoke about is called the Super Booster Super Booster allows you to access some of your superannuation and put that money into a pension account at the same time draw that money back from pension and salary sacrifice income back in to your superannuation savings what it looks like is this you simply you've got a superannuation account you move an amount of money into your pension account now though they're in a normal pension account post retirement as I said there's the one main rule there that you must withdraw back a minimum of four percent of your account balance annually generally there is no maximum but within a transition to retirement pension there is a maximum of 10 of your account balance so you must withdraw between four and ten percent if you're using it as a transition to retirement pension now once you've done that you have extra money in your pocket and if you're over age 60 that 10 is back to you totally tax-free because superannuation is used as a tax vehicle you can then salary sacrifice your income back into your superannuation account rather than paying tax at your marginal tax rate you will simply pay tax at the superannuation rate of 15 cents in the dollar simply by running your money through the superannuation and pension account system can make a very big difference and help you boost your retirement savings again it works seamlessly then when you permanently retire just to have that pension account and I've already spoken through the benefits of the pension account now I will just pause here momentarily first of all because there are a couple of questions that have come in um so I will um in fact if it's all right just having a quick read of those I might address each of those questions um at the end of the presentation just with the just to highlight the last one um yeah don't feel you need to be scribbling the notes again a copy of the slides a recording of the presentation will be available after the session um so absolutely you'll receive everything you know receive it exactly as I talk about it so if you're they're scribbling notes um you can you can give you please feel free to scribble notes of course feel free to give yourself a little bit of a rest now one of the other key benefits here around using a pension account is that they are worked favorably with the government age pension most of us will be thinking well I've worked and paid tax my whole working life I would like to receive a government age pension once I retire of course there are lots of rules and lots of things that you must do to be able to receive or qualify for a government age pension I'm not going to work through each of these with you because as we know there are lots of different pieces and of course dealing with um government agencies can be a little bit frustrating but there are a couple of things I would like to address and the first and Main ones here is the last point there to be eligible to qualify for the government age pension you must satisfy both the assets and the income tests now generally your superannuation will sort of rule you out of um qualifying for a government age pension very simply because the um asset within your superannuation will generally rule you out but if you use an sorry if you use an allocated pension rather than the entire balance of your superannuation account counting towards it what will count is the income that you withdraw from that pension so your income will include once you retire any work that you do you might still be working part-time anything that you withdraw from pensions or annuities any income from Investments whether that be Insider or outside Australia and as we can see the limits of what you can earn per fortnight or per annum even to qualify for the uh government age pension are reasonably low but if your money is in superannuation within superannuation it will count as an asset if you move it into a pension account the only thing that will count is the income from that pension the assets test to qualify for a government age pension includes basically everything all your assets whether they be investment properties Caravans cars boats business assets and I said your superannuation account in fact the only thing that doesn't count towards the asset test is your family home it isn't counted as an asset but if you decided to sell it to downsize there are flexibility there around how it could affect your pension the last thing I want to say about the government age pension is this for most of us as we can see it's not a lot of money and most of us probably are aspire to a higher standard of living than the government age pension will provide however we live in a country with Social Security whether that be for the unemployed the unfortunate those unable to work and support themselves the government age pension is there but for most of us who've been working the you know your superannuation will provide a better lifestyle than the government age pension the good news is this even if you are first ineligible to receive a government age pension each and every year the government will reassess and say you are now eligible your personal savings your retirement savings has dropped far enough if you like that you are now eligible to receive some form of government support again don't need to be too worried about if not eligible at the start you might be eligible at some point further down the track all right now we there's lots we're going through here and we're going through in quite a hurry there are a couple of things that I need to touch on first of all when it comes to managing your super there is lots of support available for you no matter how you want support whether it's managing your soup yourself via the Russell super Tracker app now available on both iOS or Apple devices as well as Android Samsung devices whatever you need if you need to see your account balance if you want a projection of where your super is headed you can use um what we call our goal tracker program to set a retirement lifestyle goal see how you're tracking against people like you there are lots of things to do and the goal tracker and sorry the super Tracker app is a wonderful way to monitor your superannuation and your retirement savings but what all these things will do whether it be online whether it be the Super Tracker app they will never replace the ability to speak to a real person and we're very focused on providing lots of Support Services to you where you can speak one-on-one with a real person the good news is that most of these services are available at absolutely no cost to you the first service that we offer we call retire ready consultations where you can sit down one-on-one with a Russell retirement expert and talk about whatever you want to talk about as you approach retirement if you want to understand how pensions work if you want to understand how a transition to retirement pension work how to take advantage of age-based super rules while you're still working a one-on-one appointment either by either in your workplace or in your home these days they're also offered virtually of course where an appointment can be set up importantly this information is provided at absolutely no cost to you and a little bit like this presentation is General Financial information only that means it won't take into account your personal circumstances but will provide the structures and the ideas around how you can create an income from your superannuation savings of course Sometimes some of us will want somebody to take into account our personal circumstances and provide advice to us as a member of Russell Investments you also have access to over the phone no cost phone-based personal financial advice here you are talking over the phone with a fully qualified financial advisor they can take into account your personal circumstances and Canon will make recommendations based on those personal circumstances again this service is provided to you at absolutely no cost to make sure this is delivered properly though we call it single issue advice and that means they can talk to you about your superannuation and retirement savings within Russell Investments what they can't do is talk to you about things outside super or outside Russell investment property share portfolios family trusts they can't talk about those things but we also understand that sometimes you will want to talk about those things so we've partnered with senior financial advisors who can take into account those things and talk about whatever you would like to talk about full comprehensive Financial advice works on a fee for service basis this is what you get and that's what it costs a fixed flat dollar amount the only thing I'll really say there is don't be scared of advice whether it be general advice whether it be over the phone no cost or whether it be the comprehensive advice we are not going to push you towards comprehensive Financial advice we will help you as much as we can under general information before we'll talk to you about no cost advice before we'll even mention to you the full comprehensive advice it's your money and you will stay in control now how do you access any of these Services where do you go well there I used to say there's one simple place to go now there are actually two the first one of course is to pick up the phone and call us no matter what your question is 1-800 Triple five double six seven pick up the call let them know that you need some assistance and they will be able to assist you alternatively if you would like us to call you you might think well I'm going to call the 1-800 number and then life gets in the way if you would like us to call you pick up your device the QR code on the screen and we will give you a call of course while you were there you can provide feedback on this session we always like to make sure the information that we provide is useful and valuable to you again I can see there's lots of questions there and I'm going to address and answer each of those questions very very shortly but the best place to get help when you have questions about your super is to either pick up the phone and call us or use the QR code on the screen again I'll come back to these in just a moment so if you do miss it now don't worry because we are just about at the end of the presentation the first thing I need to do is again highlight that all the information in today's presentation is General Financial information only it hasn't taken into account your personal circumstances please consider it in a lot of your circumstances before acting on any of the information and if you do require personal Financial advice or guidance it is available by calling the fund on 1-800 Triple five double six seven now first of all and just before I get to questions thank you very much for your time this afternoon I do hope there has been some value in this session for you in the future you will receive again a copy of this recording a copy of the slides you're also going to receive a link to something called your next step questionnaire which based on a couple of generic answers that you provide we are going to recommend a next step for you to take whether that be a retire ready meeting whether that be to have a meeting with one of our financial advisors or whether that be to read through a retirement brochure that we're going to send you lots of actions lots of steps for you to take all right two things I'm going to go back to the slides just for if anyone wants the QR code and I'm now going to start addressing each of these questions at the same time I do that as I said at the start you are all muted I am right now just giving you all the ability to take yourself off mute if you would like to verbally ask a question I'll pop an earpiece in so if you do have a question please feel free just to take yourself off mute and ask it in the meantime I'm going to just start working through each of the questions so the first question here um comes from Peter I will just highlight the first time um actually see these questions in their entirely is when I read them the first question here is from Peter Peter has said what happens if you reach 60 years and retire start using some of your super then decide a year later you want to go back to work can you do this so the great news Peter is it's retiring is always about intention and as long as your intention at the time so reaching age 60 you think well that's it I'm planning on retiring absolutely fine you can move your money from Super to a pension account start withdrawing that money back if in the future you decide to go back to work there is no penalty for doing that and you can declare I want to go back to work there you have lots of options at any point in time you can move the money in your pension account back to your superannuation account when you do that there is no tax penalty for doing that and if you do that within a Russell IQR pension there is no fee for doing that meaning you have total flexibility to move from Super to pension circumstances change go back from pension to Super keep contributing to your superannuation account next question Siva has said can I access to Super while I am still working if I am over 60 absolutely Siva as I said over 60 um you can set up a transition to retirement pension and withdraw up to 10 of your account balance if you are over 60 but not yet 65 you can't have access to all of it between 60 and 65 you would need to then declare you are retiring to have access to your time and savings but a transition to retirement pension that I spoke about within the presentation could allow you to to work through and do those things um so Andrew said which I acknowledged before a copy of the presentation you certainly will Andrew um Siva has asked another question saying can you explain a bit more about salary sacrifice please um certainly so so at the end of the day superannuation is one thing and that is it's a savings vehicle for retirement of course as I spoke about there are lots of different ways to say whether that be money in the bank into an investment property a world of options but what makes superannuation work particularly as a savings vehicle is the tax effective nature of the money rather than paying tax at your marginal tax rate and most of us pay tax at 32 and a half cents in the Dollar Plus Medicare superannuation is a tax environment and it simply says you can save and simply pay tax on that money at 15 cents in the dollar so rather than earning a hundred dollars paying uh tax at thirty two and a half cents plus Medicare leaves about sixty five dollars in your pocket you can salary sacrifice that money straight into your superannuation account pay no income tax on it and just have that money taxed at the superannuation rate of 15 cents in the dollar now of course there are restrictions around that and there's the annual limit of 27 and a half thousand dollars of what's called concessional contributions so that includes anything that your employer contributes as well as salary sacrifice contribution again if you want to understand and see how you're tracking towards your um salary sacrifice or concessional contribution limit don't be shy pick up the phone and call us we can tell you exactly how you are tracking all right thank you excuse me I'm going to have a quick sip of water I will again also invite and just check if I did that give you anyone the ability to take themselves off mute if you would like to verbally ask your question excuse me otherwise I'll just keep working through the typed question here um so Victor has said is the minimum withdrawal in withdrawal I can't say that withdraw a bull amount from your pension fund two percent or four percent so Victor you are exactly right traditionally it's four percent and has has usually been four percent um at the moment there is some temporary temporary relief that the government has issued saying you only must withdraw for this financial year two percent now the intention there as we know Global markets have been a little bit shaky and what the government doesn't want you to do is be forced to sell assets so such as your your pension account and so they're allowing you to to reduce that amount to two percent for this financial year um no talk yet on how long that will last whether they'll roll it over for another Financial year at this point it is two percent otherwise we're at worst would go back to the traditional four percent I think um so Victor has said I thought pension fund is now taxed at 15 is it totally tax-free up to a lifetime limit of 1. 7 million dollars everything in your pension account is totally tax-free the withdrawals as the money comes out is totally tax-free the investment earnings on that 1.7 million dollars is totally tax-free again superannuation is a savings environment for your retirement what makes it work it's taxed at 15 cents in the dollar going in the investment earnings are taxed at 15 cents in the dollar before we declare them to you and in pension phase so the other side where you move it to an allocated pension the investment earnings and the withdrawals are totally taxable free and ultimately this is what makes both superannuation and the allocated pension system work well together is the tax effective nature Victor they are a great questions um they go right to the heart of exactly why we have superannuation all right next question as I work through again I'll highlight don't be shy if you've got a question take yourself off mute fire away I'll do my very best to answer that just yell out when it suits you in the meantime the next question Greg has said is there a good time for consolidation of s of super EG when markets are low um Greg generally not that I would always argue that a good time is as soon as possible while you have multiple superannuation funds you are paying multiple sets of fees assuming you are invested in a similar or same way in different funds of course when you know markets are down think of it as the share price you can buy in shares though lower at a lower price now meaning or you might be selling assets at a lower price from the other fund you're going to be able to buy into your next fund at the same lower price generally timing shouldn't necessarily make a big difference there um Jeffer said how do we ensure you are one of the better funds I have over 1.5 million dollars at stake um thanks Jeff and look a a really good um question there one of the things that we all want to do of course is make sure that the funds that we are in and the financial institution that we've partnered with it is a good fund now the first thing I I'll say there Jeff is you know you're dealing with a superannuation fund and a financial institution that is one of for lack of terminology one of the big players in town I in sort of preparation for that I got the updated numbers Russell Investments globally manage more than 429 billion in assets under management um we have more than a hundred thousand uh Australian members within our superannuation fund we've been in business in Australia for over 30 years and just within the superannuation fund in Australia we have assets under management greater than 9. 4 billion dollars so I guess from a scale perspective you can have confidence that you're not alone we're not some little Fly by Night operation we are a large global company who's committed to improving the financial solution uh Financial outcomes and solutions for you and our members um we certainly respect and appreciate that you have a choice to make and there is a wide Choice out there of you know superannuation and financial services providers but what we are is a bespoke tailored um financial institution committed to helping you achieve your retirement savings goals look I I guess the one other thing I'll say there and maybe this goes at a higher level of course I'm going to promote Russell Investments it's my job I've worked here for 15 years and I very much believe you know that I work for a very good company beyond that if there is any concern around you know the individual company what happens if Russell Investments goes broke or gets sold superannuation is always invested in trust and so what that means is you don't need to be concerned about the performance of Russell Investments or any other financial institution within the superannuation space because it's invested in trust means even if Russell Investments were to go broke the underlying assets exist in self very simply what would happen is another financial institution would come up and take over the running of that fund um again I can probably talk for a long time I don't want to you know oversell this I'm not looking to to turn it into a sales event at all what I'm hoping I'm I can do you know we are in the fortunate position of partnering with you in managing your retirement savings it is a responsibility that we take very very seriously we would always love the opportunity to talk to you and engage around making sure that that you're feeling you know we are doing the right thing by your um money and your retirement savings with that said you know again I don't want to I can I can keep talking about about that I don't uh particularly want to turn this into into a Russell investment Sales Event all right let's keep moving next I I hope I've answered that okay by the way uh Jeff um next question Russell has said what if my wife can retire now or how will that affect our income or should we wait until I retire um so so from a I think understanding that one shouldn't affect the other Russell unless you're planning on receiving that government age age pension um if your wife is able to retire now she can certainly set it up start drawing an income stream from that if she wishes and then when you retire you can also start doing that alternatively you know there is no compulsion to retire and start withdrawing money from superannuation so if you for lack of terminology don't require the money yet you can leave it um sitting in the superannuation account it will continue to be invested continue to earn interest or growth right up until the day that you do start to withdraw or move it to that allocated pension where then you must start withdrawing the four percent all right let's go David has said being over 60 but not planning to retire yet can I take out a part of my super to pay off my mortgage would this be through an allocated pension um David depending on um your circumstances we would need to look at your account individually to be able to assess what first of all if you have an amount that's available to do that straight from Super the other way to do it would be via setting up a transition to retirement pension taking a lump sum out of that but that would be restricted to the maximum 10 of your account balance again I'd invite you call the fund press the QR code we can contact you and talk to you about what would be available to you uh Stephen has said are the management fees for allocated pensions similar to the management fees for super it the short answer to that Stephen is absolutely um they are of course many of you joining us from many different employers will have different fee Arrangements maybe your current employer pays some of your fees pays Insurance whatever it might be the fees um within the allocated pension are very similar to superannuation um however what of course might change is that um your employer post retirement will no longer cover some of those costs and I I one point to make there I think we can all be good I think I'm safe in saying no one ever likes paying fees to a financial institution um fees are a conversation that we're always very happy to have with you again no one likes paying them but they are a reality you will not find a funder of financial institution that does not charge fees we would always just love the opportunity if these are an issue or concern to have a conversation with you about them all right let's keep uh working through these questions um Jonathan has said hi my wife is 10 years younger than me so isn't eligible for a pension for 10 plus years later than me how will I be assessed for income and and what pension single or couple would I be eligible for thanks Jonathan first of all congratulations um um certainly so one of the differences from an individual again superannuation allocated pension perspective they do work separately however of course the government if trying to be assessed for a government age pension we'll look at entire household income Etc together so there will be lots of different pieces there I would suggest if your wife is still working um chances are under that income house because they will look at household income chances are you may not be eligible for a government age pension again something we can have a discussion with you I'm not sure we'll be able to say though prior this is what you will be eligible for we will be able to talk about the limits that might um rule you out um Ellen has said can you stop and start the retirement account yeah absolutely Alan as I said before we're at any point in time you've got the superannuation account you move the money to a pension account at any point in time you can reverse that pension back to Super no tax no fee it is as simple as that if you would like to do that and it is um quite a strategy to use around transitions retirement pensions sometimes um Trevor has said is there a Max dollar you can transfer back into your super fund if you were drawing a pension uh no Trevor as I just said you can do that um I am just working through each of these sorry hi I'm uh Victorino has said hi I'm currently overseas do I have to be in Australia to access my super retirement fund um Vic the good news is you don't have to be in Australia to access your superannuation account you just need to have met those conditions are released before turn 65 16 no longer work etc once you've done that you can have access to the money um I am just keep working through again I will invite anyone who would like to take themselves off mute and verbally ask your question please do so excuse me one moment [Music] uh Stephen has said is there a Dollar cap to the amount that can be withdrawn annually from an allocated pension Stephen no dollar cap at all minimum of four percent of your account balance annually absolutely no maximum so what that means is you have total flexibility around that account for the sake of an easy number if you put a million dollars in the Only Rule this year will be you must withdraw forty thousand dollars for the year at any point during the year you can say actually I want a lump sum out of there I want a new kitchen new car or a big holiday you can withdraw out a lump sum it might be you say you know what I don't want I want to move it all back to Super I've already spoken about that one you can do that at any time at any point in time you might say you know what I want my whole million dollars for whatever reason it might be you could take it all out I will just preference if you take all your money out of the superannuation and allocated pension system make sure you're aware of what you are doing very simply once you do take it out it can be very difficult to get it back in to that tax environment all right um Neil has asked what is the current cap for transferred to pension phase um so pension phase is simply the amount you can have in super so super that tax environment at 15 cents in the dollar pension that tax environment zero cents in the dollar the maximum current transfer limit is 1. 7 million dollars that you can move from Super to pension now it does go up every couple of years linked to to CPI so it so it does increase and it's a lifetime limit all it would mean is to move if you happen if you had done well enough to get two million dollars into Super you would only be able to transfer that maximum 1. 7 million to pension to that tax-free environment the remainder must say must stay in a superannuation environment of course you can also withdraw it and put it anywhere else it just means that that tax-free environment is limited to the 1.7 million dollars very good question um I'm just still working through as you might hear I apologize my voice is just starting to um to wobble a little bit let's hope we get there um so um Maxwell has asked generally uh how much does a comprehensive Financial advice cost um actually I'm a little bit loath to put a figure on it um just because it does vary it's very personalized it can vary anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars up to several thousand dollars depending on the unique um circumstance we'll quite often see people around a couple of thousand dollar Mark depending on what you want to achieve again we're not trying to push um paid Financial advice we hope that we could answer for you all your questions within that General no cost framework um I will simply say this don't be scared of it there's not going to be nasty surprises it's not going to be swipe your credit card as you walk through the door it will simply be here's the information that you're after and there will then be costs once they're aware of of what your uh requirements are Andrew has said is there a maximum hours of dollars I can work earn when in a TTR no so the only um the the limit I guess if you like Andrew will very much be um very similar to contribution limits so 27 and a half thousand dollars of pre-tax money so that's not the money coming out of pension um otherwise you all you should have flexibility there um Ellen has asked can you contribute to your super after retirement um absolutely Alan so so you can if you still had a source of income and wanted to put that money back into Super chances are even though you've got a I use the analogy before check and savings account with your banking for super and pension account chances are you might at different times have both going you've got a pension account and a super account super account to receive contributions pension account to pay contributions out um absolutely can be done John has said let me read this one John planning to retire next year at age 64. are utilizing the pension account and subsidizing my retirement would this not be a benefit also by reducing my account balance down prior to reaching age 67 more chance of getting a pension um so absolutely Johnny if if uh receiving a government age pension is something that's very important to you you can you know spending your money if you like disposing of that money without accruing assets um it is you know you will become eligible for some form of government support um if you pass there the income and assets test um all right let's keep going Andrew has said I've heard that the Max hours per week is 10 hours this is this related to something within retirement apology is such a wide right reaching question thanks Andrew um great question and this is certainly The Forum to do them even though um maybe not what we spoke about in the presentation something um um you know get retirement's a very inclusive thing there's lots of different parts to it um I think what you're referring to there Andrew is sort of the government announcement that they will allow um retirees to to do some work and of course that's in response to the current skills crisis if you like um you know the whole world is is looking for employees so while it's not directly related to what we're talking about and certainly the the financial um aspects of both superannuation and and pension you know there aren't it's not necessarily related to this and what have an effect on that um but thank you let's just say Jonathan has said once retired should I transfer all my super into my pension fund um I I won't say that you should it is certainly an option to do of course the benefit will be tax-free investment earnings so rather than paying tax at the superannuation rate of 15 cents in the dollar simply as an investment vehicle tax-free investment earnings within an allocated pension up to that limit of 1. 7 million dollars um meaning more of your money is working harder for you the one rule again must withdraw four percent of your account balance annual let's keep going uh Russell welcome Russell has said if allocated pension value increases over 1.7 due to good returns even though I have not contributed more than 1. 7 is still totally tax-free um Russell there are lots of rules they actually work on What's called the lifetime caps sort of it does take into account things like investment earnings Etc so it can vary um throughout the journey um to be able to do that there would be limits it's generally pretty flexible um you know good investment returns again we all hope we get them um if it does go over yes it would be would be totally tax-free um Stephen has said what options do you have in relation to monies in your superannuation Fund in excess of the 1.7 um so Stephen there's not a um I guess a lot of options there the two options take the money spend it on whatever you like pop it in the bank do whatever you like you can certainly leave it in a superannuation environment within super it's only taxed at 15 cents in the dollar as opposed to your marginal tax rate or capital gains if you invest anywhere the 1. 7 is simply the amount of money you can move from Super to pension in that um tax-free environment must leave it in the superannuation 15 tax environment all right um if you leave or retire can you continue with Russell the great news is we have been we've had a partnership with you while you've been working and we would love to continue that relationship with you off into the future whether that be not retiring but to get another job or of course as you consider your retirement options again we understand and appreciate that you have a a world of choice to make and what we would always like to do is just be in that conversation with you let's talk around what Financial products do we have that might be suitable for you if we're not right for you that's that's absolutely fine we would just again love the ability to have that conversation with you I appreciate the question um let me keep going Russell again Ken Russell give assistance to move over other super funds over to Russell Investments um they answer your question Russell so assistance yes we can there are limits these days of what we are and aren't able to do please we we can certainly talk to you about that and help you through whatever the unique circumstances circumstances again don't be sure I'd pick up the phone use the QR code feel free to uh to ask us and we'll do our very best um John has asked what super returns have members received this financial year um John sorry the first thing I'll declare is I I don't actually have all the percentage returns uh here in front or in a consumable format they are available to you um publicly online you don't even need to log in you can go in and and see all those again just back to the the start of the presentation I think as we saw you know this year has been a challenging year if you like for investment markets globally whether that be in any of the investment classes we've seen probably a higher level of volatility this year than we would expect um if you are looking to to compare you know any two investments just to be aware of a couple of of things same time frame is essential so if you're looking to compare us to any other super fund make sure you're comparing same type of investment so is it Aussie shares International shares property is it a diversified if it's a balanced fund is the mix the same with growth and defensive options and yeah make sure that time frame is the same um lots of lots of bits and pieces there we are getting through them and getting close um I'll just keep working through some of these questions I will just quickly highlight just noting the time there I have gone a little bit over our hour with all the wonderful um questions of course I'll keep going for as long as anyone needs if you do need to leave you know thank you very much again for your time today I hope there's been some value in this for you um you will receive all the information recordings Etc in the future let's keep working through excuse me Ellen has said how is the 1.7 million calculated value in account or money transferred um so Ellen it does work on uh annual um basically on your your superannuation balance okay yeah it stops you just doing those it's a lifetime limit but it's the lifetime into the pension environment that that tax-free environment there is quite a calculation that we need to go through to achieve that if you're concerned around that I mean first of all I think you know it's a nice problem to have it simply limits the amount that you can have into a tax-free environment I hope I've answered that one okay um Rosa has said why people would change from transition to superannuation um so I'm not quite sure Rosa I'm sorry exactly what you mean by that question if the question is why would you move to pension from the superannuation again tax free internet tax you know superannuation taxed environment pension tax-free environment um as a transition to retirement pension lots of different ways to use them including boosting your super balance giving you access to your some of your money before you retire making a lifestyle decision decisions Etc Sharon has said uh oh she just said Thank you thank you Sharon that's very nice of you um John has asked if I was to downsize what amount would I be able to deposit in my superannuation account um so certainly there are um downsizer contribution uh rules these days John which allow you on sale of your family home to contribute extra amount above normal contribution limits into your superannuation savings now generally John that's around the 300 000 Mark it's an individual limit which means it could be 300 for you and 300 for your your partner um but but you know look at variations again there can be lots of moving pieces there I would highly recommend speak to speak to somebody who can look at your account and look at the individual circumstances and and help you through that process um thank you John Amy has said our fees excuse me our fees on pension accounts the same as super no Amy they they do vary there is a difference there um between their two different Financial products there are different fees there again as I um said before you know we'd always love the opportunity to have the fee conversation with you there will be variation between those you know all we always ask is to have that conversation with you um at the right time Now ladies and gentlemen the good news is I've got through all those questions for the moment so before we finish a couple of other things feel free any further questions feel free to type them in again feel free to take yourself off mute and verbally ask me a question just confirming I had done that um but for anyone or in fact there's a couple more questions come in now so Kim has said I recently sold my primary residence to move to my retirement place it wasn't a downsize per se but an upsize congratulations can I still use the downsize money for the sale of the smaller place one time into Super under this rule further to John's question Thanksgiving the the short answer is yeah on sale of your primary residence again you may be able to to contribute whether it's upsides or downsize it's more about changing into to retirement place if you like um so absolutely may be an option um Kim to understand the unique parts of that I would recommend again and I know I keep pushing everyone to it 1-800 number all QR code they'll be able to work through and have a look at the unique and individual circumstances um thank you all right so again ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for your time this afternoon and thank you a couple of uh lovely bits of feedback there I greatly appreciate them again I will invite any further questions whether it be verbally whether it be via the chat function but um if there is nothing further I thank you for your time and I invite you at your convenience to leave today's session of course I will stay here for a good few minutes yeah I might just turn my camera off so I can have visible water but thank you again