objective analysis of today's events, page-52

Yes - you can access the funds at age 55 as long as you're still working. My accountant calls it TTR (Transition To Retirement). That arrangement is one where you can salary-sacrifice INTO your fund as contributions (at 15% tax) up to the cap, but draw a pension at the same time, which puts the fund into a partial (TTR) pension mode, and hence earnings in the fund are tax free, as is your pension that you draw.

An example would be to contribute $25,000 from your salary into your fund at 15% tax on the way in, then draw the same $25,000 out as a pension tax-free. And of course, the earnings inside the fund - capital gains, divvies, etc - are tax free due to the pension phase of the fund.

So, instead of paying your full tax rate on that $25,000 (our top tax rate is about 47%) you only pay 15% in total. Plus the tax advantages once it's in the fund.

Note that once the fund is in pension phase, there is a minimum that you MUST draw out of it each year, to maintain that status. In TTR, that is 10% of what the balance of the fund was at the last June 30th.

There has been a concession for a couple of years to halve that, due to the financial downturn and people not wanting to take much out of their funds. Of course, you can always re-contribute it back into the fund as a non-concessional contribution, but things then start to become more complicated in terms of the paperwork, and maintaining which portion of the fund is concessional, which isn't, etc.

It can become quite complicated - Australia has probably the most complicated set of rules and tax laws for Superannuation Funds (pension funds) on the planet.

I use a specialist firm of Super Fund administrators to do the paperwork and make sure I remain fully compliant, as the Tax Office can put your fund into default quick smart if you're not careful. Using the admin firm costs me not a lot each year, but saves me heaps of money and even more heartache.