Macquarie Adviser Services launches transition to retirement pension

07 March 2006

Macquarie Adviser Services today announced that financial advisers can now offer their clients access to a "transition to retirement pension" through their allocated or term allocated pensions via Macquarie Pension Manager and Macquarie SuperOptions Pension Plan.

The new transition to retirement feature means advisers can offer their clients the option to scale back their working hours and ease themselves into retirement, while topping up the reduced salary with a part-pension drawn-down from their existing superannuation.

Macquarie's new transition to retirement pensions allow advisers and their clients the full flexibility of combining preserved, restricted non-preserved and unrestricted non-preserved components into a single pension.

Macquarie Wrap Solutions Senior Product Manager, Andrew Wood, said the introduction of Macquarie's transition to retirement pension followed a rule change by the Federal Government on 1 July 2005 which allowed this style of pension for the first time.

"We are very pleased to be able to offer this new pension option to advisers," Mr Wood said.

"We believe it will tangibly improve the options for people looking to retire in the not-too-distant future.

"This initiative means clients can choose to reduce their working hours while supplementing their income by drawing down on their superannuation savings.

"Previously it was only possible to access superannuation benefits upon reaching preservation age and retiring, or on reaching age 65. As a result, it was difficult to scale down hours of work and still maintain the same standard of living.”

"It is a positive step for both employers and clients and allows people who have reached 55 years of age to continue to use their skills in the workplace while enjoying some more time for themselves without a loss of lifestyle."

The transition to retirement pensions revert to regular pensions, consisting of unrestricted non-preserved funds, once the client can satisfy a full condition of release or reaches age 65.

Mr Wood said the process had been streamlined and clients will not need to complete a new application, nor change their account number once this occurs.

For further information please telephone:

Belinda Lawton
Public Relations
Macquarie Financial Services Group
Tel: (02) 8232 3835
Mobile: 0409 305 000

Macquarie Wrap Solutions is a registered business name of Macquarie Investment Management Limited ABN 66 002 867 003 AFSL 237492 ("MIML"). MIML is the issuer and provider of financial products and services offered through Macquarie Wrap Solutions, including the Macquarie Pension Manager and the Macquarie SuperOptions Plan ("Pension Products"). Investments in the Pension Products are not deposits with or other liabilities of Macquarie Bank Limited, MIML or any other member company of the Macquarie Bank Group, and are subject to investment risk, including possible delays in repayment and loss of income or principal invested. No member company of the Macquarie Bank Group guarantees the performance of the Pension Products or the repayment of capital from the Pension Products.