Parents getting aged pension

Seems to me about creating a problem through some regulation, that might not necessarily exist in order to fix said 'problem'.

 

I'd like to see the reaction of those who have a large SMSF, say, $50m +. I'm sure the members of those funds need to be informed they can spend capital as part of their retirement funding.

Even those who have accumulated a measly $1.7m will likely have a pretty good idea of what their financial needs are although I will accept any dudes who had around that amount and bailed out to cash in March/April last year really do need to be told something. What that something is I'll leave to the imagination.

 

Guvmint thinks not .

 

Ha ha. Nice.

 

Government would like that plan also

 

I find the notion of "burning money" to access an aged pension a strange concept. There are several ways to legit pull down assets so that a pension can be accessed - Often for card benefits eg pensioner pharmacy fees and discounts etc along with a small pension. eg Using savings to buy prepaid funeral plans, gifting within limits, spending within lifestyle needs etc. Sometimes the parents have sizeable wealth and do want to assist family but then they are often fully self funded and dont ever expect any pension benefits and often appreciate that they wont get it. Its like choosing to fly economy when you can comfortably choose first class. Why would you even look at economy?

At times I also find such people have very supportive family who are very eager for their parents to get advice on how to dispose of assets and money...to their benefit. And it sometimes includes property that the parents have owned for long time that has development potential. And often such plans dont consider all their siblings...Just their own plans. It usually reeks of greed. They often have very well planned strategies to be gifted property and cash and the kids (not so much the parents) get quite annoyed when told that gifting will act to limit these plans. Its common the parents are less committed to the idea than at least one adult child. Fairly common too that this one seeks more than their siblings...because they do so much for their parents of course.

Advisers must be cautious for elder abuse which can be quite passive and be a situation when parents wealth is stripped to benefit others to access what may be a trivial aged pension benefit vs true wealth. Unfortunately we cant usually determine when we die and can die at age 62 or 92.

The pension is a safety net and should not be an ambition. The true test is looking at what aged care looks like on an age pension v that which is self funded.