I am anxious about my parents. Dad is 79 and Mum is 74. They both retired last year with no super; they have $500,000 in an ANZ Plus account. They don’t trust financial advisers – no offence intended, they don’t trust anyone about money. They own their home and four cars. How can I improve their financial situation?

You’re in a tough spot here. Trying to help people who don’t want to be helped is unlikely to lead to a happy outcome for anyone involved.

Hopefully, they are getting the age pension, and if they are happy living off this plus their savings, then I think you just have to let them be. It’s a shame that they aren’t making use of the superannuation system, but you can’t force people to do things they don’t want to do.

If we make use of the Home Equity Access Scheme, does that lower our assessable assets for age pension purposes?

Because your home is already ignored for the age pension means test, using the Home Equity Access Scheme has no impact on your pension entitlement. Note, this does assume that the money you receive via the scheme is spent.

Were you to accumulate it in a bank account, then of course your assets would increase and therefore there would be a negative impact on your pension. But then, if you aren’t spending it, why access the scheme in the first place?

I’ve just turned 65, and my super’s lifestyle option automatically shifted to Conservative Balanced. I plan to keep working part-time until around 70, and I am considering moving about 10 per cent of my super into a higher-growth option until age 67–68 to potentially boost my balance and returns. What are your thoughts on this approach?

Congratulations on taking an interest in your super and picking up on this change. I actually think the automation of this asset allocation change is borderline negligent on behalf of the super fund.

Your money needs to last you hopefully 30 years or more, and therefore, as you have identified, it is important that you have exposure to growth assets to protect against longevity risk, that is the risk that your money runs out during your lifetime.

Without knowing the specifics of your fund and how they invest their various options, I can’t comment as to whether a 10 per cent allocation to high growth is the correct solution.

But I think you are definitely asking the right question, and it would be well worth your time having a discussion either with your super fund, or with a financial planner, to consider a more appropriate investment allocation for you.

Why does the government make it so difficult for a person to transfer some of their super to their spouse? With the much-publicised issue of gender pay inequality and the flow on effect of men generally having greater super balances than women, the government only allows me to transfer to my wife the net proceeds of my concessional contributions (up to the annual cap) made in the previous financial year.

Great question. There is a solution, but unfortunately, you have to get divorced to use it. Crazy, isn’t it?

Once retired, you may have scope to do some lump sum withdrawals out of your fund, and then get money into your wife’s super fund as a non-concessional contribution. But I’m certainly with you on this one, it should be easier for couples to balance out their superannuation savings.

Paul Benson is a Certified Financial Planner at Guidance Financial Services. He hosts the Financial Autonomy podcast. Questions to: paul@financialautonomy.com.au

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

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