"Industry superannuation behemoth AustralianSuper is pushing Treasury to allow funds to set up “accounts for life” for customers, in a bid for greater involvement in how members manage and spend their savings
Yes I was reading about that suggestion from Australian Super. They would like to be able to offer customers a choice to have super funds manage their retirement income stream. Suggestions include abolishing separate accumulation and retirement accounts with their associated doubling up of account management fees. Allowing withdrawals and deposits to the one account rather than the existing rules which state once you open a pension account you can't add to it. (So if you decide to start work again you need another accumulation account or when you opt to set up a pension you keep a minimum in an accumulation account just in case)
Allowing Super funds to arrange age pension applications (seeing that so many retirees don't apply when they would first be eligible) and integrating the pension into their income stream.
The fund separately told Treasury that the government should not create its own standardised retirement product in its submission, instead allowing funds to tailor products to meet individual requirements. They say such funds should be subject to performance testing like accumulation funds currently are but also having aspects associated with retirement.
