What is a transition to retirement strategy?

A transition to retirement (TTR) strategy is ideal for those Australians looking to ease into retirement by slowly reducing their working hours.

It is the kind of pre-retirement strategy that allows individuals to continue working while drawing down some of their superannuation benefits at the same time.

TTR uses a portion of an individual’s super to create an additional income stream (a retirement income account) while they are still working. The super account continues to receive contributions from the individual’s employer and any before-tax (salary sacrifice) contributions. The retirement income account uses some of the super savings to provide regular payments that top up the individual’s income.

Prior to the government introducing the TTR strategy, an individual could only access their super fund once they turned 65 or retired. Under the new TTR rules, an individual must be over the age of 55 and under the age of 65 to access the strategy.

The benefit of a TTR strategy is the fact that an individual can boost their superannuation savings while easing into retirement and pay less tax at the same time.

The investments in the super fund are free of CGT and earnings tax while an individual draws on their super, so a transition to retirement income stream provides some benefits beyond saving income tax.

Categorised in: Firm journal

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